Meg Whitman, a front runner to be Uber CEO, commits to HPE

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Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Meg Whitman dismissed speculations on Friday morning Asia time that she may join Uber as a replacement for its former chief, Travis Kalanick.

Whitman, who is currently CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, emerged as a front-runner in the ride-hailing company’s search for a new chief executive officer after Kalanick stepped down in June, following pressure from shareholders.

In a series of tweets, Whitman reiterated her commitments to HPE and said she didn’t plan to move. She said, “So let me make this as clear as I can. I am fully committed to HPE and plan to remain the company’s CEO.”

Whitman added, “We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber’s CEO will not be Meg Whitman.”

Whitman Tweet 1: (1/3) Normally I do not comment on rumors, but the speculation about my future and Uber has become a distraction.

Whitman Tweet 2: (2/3) So let me make this as clear as I can. I am fully committed to HPE and plan to remain the company’s CEO.

Whitman Tweet 3: (3/3) We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber’s CEO will not be Meg Whitman.

Earlier this week, Whitman stepped down as chairwoman of HP’s board, but she remained at the helm of the more enterprise-focused HPE business. The two companies were created in 2015 from the split of Hewlett Packard.

News site Axios said on Thursday that it had learned from multiple sources that Whitman had emerged as a front-runner to become Uber’s next CEO. But, Axios reported, it was not a done deal and there was no consensus among the members of Uber’s executive search committee.

Currently Uber is struggling from myriad issues on top of the search for Kalanick’s replacement. Those include an intellectual property fight with Waymo, Google’s self-driving car program, scrutiny into its workplace culture and a criminal probe over a software that helped drivers evade local transportation regulators.