Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman put to rest reports that she may become the next CEO of Uber. “We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere, ” she said. “Uber’s CEO will not be Meg Whitman.” Page: 1
Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman says she is not going to be the next CEO of Uber.
“Normally I do not comment on rumors, but the speculation about my future and Uber has become a distraction, ” Whitman said in a Tweet on Thursday evening. “So let me make this as clear as I can. I am fully committed to H. P. E. and plan to remain the company’s C. E. O. We have a lot of work still to do at H. P. E. and I am not going anywhere. Uber’s C. E. O. will not be Meg Whitman.”
[Source: HPE CEO Whitman Has Not Interviewed For Uber CEO Job]
The statement crushed speculation that Whitman, an early Uber investor who has advised the embattled ride sharing company in the wake of a sexual harassment controversy, may leave HPE to become the next CEO of Uber
Both Bloomberg and Recode had reported that Whitman was on a “short list” for the Uber CEO job.
Whitman has turned up the volume on the rebirth of HPE with the acquisition of four companies this year – including hyper-converged power house Simplivity and all flash superstar Nimble. At the same time, she has engineered the spin off mergers of HPE’s enterprise services business and legacy software assets.
During the company’s last earnings call, Whitman told analysts that HPE is set to take the next step in its transformation into a smaller and faster-moving company.
“We have just gone through one of the largest transformations maybe in American business history, we have created four industry leading companies that I think are poised to do very well in their given segments, ” said Whitman. “Now we are very focused on the go forward Hewlett Packard Enterprise financial architecture.”
When asked by CRN just last month whether she was committed to staying the course and continuing to run HPE, Whitman replied: “I am committed. I have to say this has been quite a journey. But now it is starting to get really fun. I am excited about it. I may be the only Fortune 500 CEO who likes to run something smaller than something bigger. Maybe that is because of my eBay experience [serving as president and CEO from 1998 to 2008.] It is just more fun to run something that is fast and nimble as opposed to a supertanker.”
