Antonio Neri (born May 10, 1967) is an Argentinian-Italian-American businessman who currently serves as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

(CEO) of

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the H ...

(HPE). Born in Argentina, he studied engineering at

National Technological University The National Technological University ( es, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, UTN) is a country-wide national university in Argentina, and considered to be among the top engineering schools in the country. Hosting over 85,000 students, its stud ...

and started working for

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

in 1995. Neri joined HPE's

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

upon his promotion to the president and CEO position in 2018.

Early life and education

Neri was born in Argentina on May 10, 1967. His parents were Italian immigrants to Argentina both from Sicily. He became interested in electronics and technology as a teenager. Neri began

military education and training Military education and training is a process which intends to establish and improve the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles. Military training may be voluntary or compulsory duty. It begins with recruit training, proceed ...

at the age of 15, becoming an engineering apprentice for the

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the ...

and working to repair ships'

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

and

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

systems. He remained with the navy during his time at the Escuela Nacional de Educación Técnica and the

, where he continued to study engineering. Neri also studied art in Argentina for nine years and has taught art, specializing in drawing and painting.

Career

Early in his career, Neri left Argentina to work for a small

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

company in Italy. He started working in

's (HP) customer service department in Amsterdam in 1995. Six months later, he was promoted to a support engineer position; subsequently he became an education manager, call center manager, and services manager for Europe. In 1997, he relocated to

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

, to serve as global director of HP's imaging and printing services division. Neri moved to Houston in 2004 to work for the company's PC services business, then began heading the technology services business in 2011. Prior to HP's split into

(HPE) and

HP Inc. HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions. It was formed on November ...

in 2015, he served as senior vice president and general manager for the company's server and networking units. In 2015, Neri became executive vice president and general manager role of HPE's business division, called Enterprise Group, and focused on

marketing strategy Marketing strategy allows organizations to focus limited resources on best opportunities to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage in the market. Strategic marketing emerged in the 1970s/80s as a distinct field of study, further build ...

new product development In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product (business), product to market, renewing an existing product or introducing a product in a new market. A central aspect of NPD is prod ...

, and

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

. During his tenure as HPE's first

, which began in June 2017, Neri worked to streamline the company's businesses and served as interim chief sales officer. He replaced

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

to become the company's first Latino

(CEO) in February 2018, and joined the

. Neri has been credited for spearheading several of the company's technologies, including the Apollo HPC portfolio and Superdome X, which '' CRN'' described as "the world's most scalable in-memory compute platform". He has also been credited with helping the company acquire

Aruba Networks Aruba Networks, formerly known as Aruba Wireless Networks, is a Santa Clara, California-based wireless networking subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. The company was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 2002 by Keerti Melkote and ...

Nimble Storage Nimble Storage, founded in 2008, produced hardware and software products for data storage, specifically data storage arrays that use the iSCSI and Fibre Channel protocols and includes data backup and data protection features. Nimble is now a sub ...

Silicon Graphics International Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI; formerly Rackable Systems, Inc.) was an American manufacturer of computer hardware and software, including high-performance computing systems, x86-based servers for datacenter deployment, and visualiza ...

, and SimpliVity, and helping to define HPE's scope during the split from HP. Neri designed the interior of the company's headquarters in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Neri's "Next Initiative" has been described as a "massive reimagining" of the company; the strategy has reduced HPE's number of

stock keeping unit In inventory management, a stock keeping unit (abbreviated as SKU and pronounced or ) is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. Or to put it another way; is a distinct type of item for sale, purchased, or tracked in ...

s by 75 percent, as well as the number of management levels, and works to increase innovation. He has also focused on edge computing, modernizing the company's information technology, and increasing HPE's

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...

and

gender diversity Gender diversity is equitable or fair representation of people of different genders. It most commonly refers to an equitable ratio of men and women, but may also include people of non-binary genders. Gender diversity on corporate boards has bee ...

Personal life

During his tenure with HP, Neri lived in Europe and Latin America before relocating to the United States. He and his wife met at an HP call center and were married in the late 1990s. They have two children, and became U.S. citizens in 2012. Neri lives in

The Woodlands, TX The Woodlands is a special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands is primarily located in Montgomery County, with por ...

, and purchased a residence in

Delray Beach, Florida Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census. Located 52 miles ...

, in 2019. He speaks four languages: Dutch, English, Italian, and Spanish. His hobbies include painting and watching football.

References

External links

From the call center to the C-Suite: HPE's Neri talks diversity, Latino leadership
by Jennifer Elias (March 26, 2019), ''Silicon Valley Business Journal'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Neri, Antonio Living people Hewlett-Packard people 1967 births American chief executives National Technological University alumni Argentine businesspeople People from Livermore, California