HPE: Neri Steps In as Whitman Steps Aside

After sitting in the CEO chair at Hewlett-Packard for the past six years, Meg Whitman’s tenure is officially over, and Antonio Neri’s begins.

The new president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), who has more than two decades of history with the company, was promoted to CEO when Whitman announced in November that she was stepping down. At the time, Neri was president of HPE, a job he held for nine months. His first job at HP was as an EMEA customer service engineer, in 1995.

HPE’s Antonio Neri

Neri, a native of Argentina, refers to the chief-executive role at HPE as his dream job. He wrote about the upcoming journey in a blog.

“As my new journey begins, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on where we are headed, how we will get there, and how the dreams of our customers, partners and employees can be realized. My commitment for the upcoming period is to focus mainly on three areas: culture, innovation, and our customers and partners. While we already do a good job in these areas, I want to bring an even stronger focus to help us push our company forward,” he said.

Neri is aware that HPE can’t afford to rest on its laurels as the company strives to put some roots in the ground. It’s been just a little more than two years since since Hewlett-Packard split into two companies. While the disruption is in HPE’s rearview mirror, “all our employees must be strivers, not simply survivors,” Neri said.

Whitman isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet. She recently signed on as CEO at NewTV, a mobile-media startup backed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks. She will stay on the board at HPE.

The Hewlett Packard company that Whitman joined as CEO in 2011 is very different than the one she is leaving. Whitman led the company through one of the most significant breakups of a leading technology vendor.