Hurd to Succeed Dunn

The little televisions mounted in our office building elevators broadcast text news briefs all day and I just caught the announcement “Hurd to succeed Dunn at HP.” All I could think of was that word game where you transform one word to another by changing one letter each turn to form a new word, using as few turns as possible. By the time the elevator arrived at the 17th floor, I had:

1. DUNN
2. DUNK
3. HUNK
4. HUNT
5. HURT
6. HURD

I think I need help.