Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) CEO Antonio Neri said he tested positive for COVID-19, but the company’s HPE Discover Virtual Experience will continue as planned next week.
“I recently learned of some unfortunate personal news. Yesterday I tested positive for COVID-19,” Neri tweeted on Wednesday afternoon. “The good news is, I feel much better already and plan to proceed with business as usual while I quarantine from home.”
In subsequent tweets he said HPE’s event, which, like nearly every other 2020 trade show transitioned from in-person to fully virtual because of COVID-19, is still on. “In the meantime, please know I’m doing much better and am glad to be getting back to normal,” Neri added.
Neri will deliver the event’s opening keynote on June 23.
In his two HPE Discover events since taking the reins from former CEO Meg Whitman in February 2018, Neri has delivered an engaging keynote during which he’s on stage and talking for nearly two hours. In 2018, he pledged to invest $4 billion in edge technologies and services over the next four years. And at last year’s event, he said HPE will offer its entire portfolio as a service by 2022.
Customers and partners will likely be looking to Neri’s keynote next week to provide an optimistic outlook on what has been a particularly rough year for HPE. While most tech companies have felt the economic impact of the pandemic, HPE took an especially hard hit, and last month reported Q2 revenues fell 15% from a year ago with a drop in revenues across all of its sectors.
On the company’s earnings call, Neri said that beginning July 1, HPE will implement salary cuts for all employees through Oct. 31 with the executive team taking the biggest hit. Neri and EVPs will see their base salaries cut 25%. Senior VPs’ base salaries will be cut by 20%, and board members will also take a 25% cut to their annual cash retainer.
Overall, HPE expects the cuts to save at least $1 billion by the end of fiscal 2022.