(Copyright: CNBC)
This week HP Enteprise’s CEO, Meg Whitman, announced that she would be stepping down from her role after six eventful years at the helm.
As Reuters reported, Whitman’s “6-year tenure” had included the supervision of “one of the biggest corporate breakups in history”, namely, the division of the Hewlett Packard Co into HP Enteprise and HP Inc, with the latter specialising in PC and printer sales.
This split took place in 2015, with Whitman “aggressively” dropping assets as well as cutting “tens of thousands of jobs”, as HP Enterprise turned its focus to both server and networking businesses.
A former candidate for the role of California governor and an influential female figure in the business world, Whitman will be replaced by “relatively unknown HP executive” Antonio Neri, who is HPE’s current president and has worked for the OEM for almost 25 years. Whitman explained that Neri “is a trained computer engineer and has worked in every one of HPE’s businesses”.
“We have a much smaller, much nimbler, much more focused company,” Whitman responded, when Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi described her resignation as “abrupt”. “I think it is absolutely the right time for Antonio and a new generation of leaders to take the reins.”
Whitman will retain her place on HPE’s board of directors, which Neri will now also join.
In response to the announcement of her departure, shares of HPE “fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading.”
When questioned about her next move, Whitman revealed to Reuters that she would not be running for public office again. ”I stay active in politics by contributing to candidates from both sides of the aisle who I agree with on core issues, but aside from that, I have no plans to get involved directly,” she said.
She stated on Tuesday that she will now be taking “a little downtime, but there’s no chance I’m going to a competitor.”