HPE CEO Meg Whitman to Step Down
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman is stepping down following a six-year tenure during which a turnaround plan she championed failed to gain much traction.
Replacing Whitman will be HPE’s current president, Antonio Neri. He will become the company’s CEO and board member on Feb. 1.
“I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve accomplished since I joined HP in 2011,” Whitman said in a statement. “Now is the right time for Antonio and a new generation of leaders to take the reins of HPE. I have tremendous confidence that they will continue to build a great company that will thrive well into the future.”
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Whitman has led HPE during a time of turbulence, as the data center hardware maker has struggled amid the rise of cloud computing. Cloud computing providers like Amazon and Microsoft sell computing resources on-demand, which eliminates some of the need for companies to buy their own data center gear.
To better compete in a changing IT industry, Whitman oversaw Hewlett Packard’s split into two companies. Hewlett Packard Enterprise inherited the original company’s data center business, while HP, Inc. took over the personal computer and printing business.
It was a massive undertaking to cleave one of Silicon Valley’s long-time technology giants into two multi-billion companies. The idea was that by creating two smaller, more nimble companies, they would be able to better compete in the changing technology landscape.
Whitman was previously CEO of online marketplace eBay.
