HPE CEO Antonio Neri: ‘I Tested Positive For COVID-19’

‘I recently learned of some unfortunate personal news,’ says Neri in a Twitter post. ‘Yesterday I tested positive for COVID-19. The good news is, I feel much better already and plan to proceed with business as usual while I quarantine from home.’

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri Wednesday said he has tested positive for COVID-19.

“I recently learned of some unfortunate personal news,” said Neri in a post on Twitter at around 7:50 p.m. ET. “Yesterday I tested positive for COVID-19. The good news is, I feel much better already and plan to proceed with business as usual while I quarantine from home.”

Neri added in a separate tweet that the HPE Discover virtual conference will still take place next week as planned. “I hope you will join us to hear our latest updates and how we are helping our customers through their digital transformations,” he said.

I recently learned of some unfortunate personal news. Yesterday I tested positive for COVID-19. The good news is, I feel much better already and plan to proceed with business as usual while I quarantine from home.

— Antonio Neri (@AntonioNeri_HPE) June 17, 2020

In an upbeat internal video email, Neri said he is looking forward to speaking with HPE employees at an all-team member meeting on June 25.

Neri started the video email with a greeting to all of HPE’s 60,000 employees.“Hello I hope you are all healthy and safe wherever you are around the world,” he told HPE employees. “It has been a very challenging few months for all of us. And I recently learned of some very unfortunate news. I want you as team members to be the first to know that yesterday I tested positive for COVID-19. The good news is I feel much better already and plan to proceed with business as usual while I quarantine from home. Discover Virtual Experience will still take place next week and I am very excited about what is planned. Please dial in to hear the latest updates to our portfolio, inspiring customer stories and how we are helping our customers through their digital transformations now more than ever.”

Neri’s tweet was met with an outpouring of support from HPE employees and partners.

“I wish you a full and speedy recovery,” said Randy Cairns, vice president of business and product communications at HPE. “All of us here at HPE are pulling for you. Thank you for your transparency and the culture you have created at this company.”

Mohan Mullagiri, a customer analytics marketing manager for HPE in India, tweeted: “Dear Antonio, wishing you a speedy recovery and all excited to see you deliver keynote at Discover Virtual Experience #HPEDiscover- Your strong conviction to be Force for Good as individuals, teams and organization will see us through these challenging times- Stay Safe.”

Paul Cohen, vice president of sales for New York-based PKA Technologies Inc., one of HPE’s top Platinum enterprise partners, said Neri is an “inspirational leader” and a “great role model” for having the courage to speak openly about his COVID-19 diagnosis.

“We here at PKA wish him a speedy recovery and are looking forward to seeing his address at both the Virtual Global Partner Summit and HPE Discover,” he said. “I’m glad to hear he is already feeling better.”