HP CEO prints final page after six years, moves to PayPal

Multimillion-dollar tenure could have bought a couple of crates of toner

Longtime HP CEO Enrique Lores is decamping for a top job at PayPal, handing the reins to an interim chief while the business hunts for a permanent successor.

In a double leadership shake-up, HP confirmed that Lores has stepped down as president, CEO, and board member to take the top executive role at PayPal, effective March 1, with the payments outfit lauding his "strong track record" and "disciplined execution."

HP's board immediately installed Bruce Broussard as interim CEO. A board member since 2021, Broussard is a seasoned corporate hand best known outside tech for more than a decade running healthcare giant Humana and earlier leadership roles at US Oncology. HP said it has engaged a global search firm to find a permanent chief.

"Disciplined execution is delivering consistent progress in a dynamic environment," said HP chair Chip Bergh in a statement that could have doubled as a year-end earnings memo. "We believe we have the right strategy in place, and Bruce is the right leader to move HP forward while we identify our next CEO."

Broussard struck the expected CEO-in-waiting tone, saying HP's "relentless commitment to empowering people and businesses" positions the company well as it advances its "One HP" strategy amid complex macro and hardware markets.

Lores, an HP veteran who started as an intern and ascended to the corner office in late 2019, oversaw the company's push to reframe itself as an AI-focused workplace tech company while defending its core PC and print franchises – including its bid to make printing a subscription.

His tenure played out against a tough hardware market and a broader switch toward AI-enabled products and services – pressures that were laid bare in HP's Q4 results, where the company flagged a restructuring plan that could cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by 2028.

When Lores took the top job in 2019, HP was pulling in about $58.8 billion a year in revenue. Almost six years on, annual revenue sits lower, at roughly $55.3 billion. The journey has been anything but dull – even if the top line has ended up more or less where it started.

At PayPal, the board said it evaluated its competitive position before settling on Lores as the leader it believes can drive growth and execution. PayPal CFO and COO Jamie Miller will serve as interim CEO until Lores assumes the post.

The moves highlight an interesting cross-sector leap: a hardware CEO known for balancing legacy businesses with emerging services now helming a global digital payments platform facing its own set of growth challenges – PayPal has seen its stock tumble by more than 23 percent in the last three months.

For HP, the question is whether Broussard can steady a business still weighed down by soft PC demand and tight enterprise budgets – especially when annual revenue is now lower than it was when Lores took over in 2019 despite years of restructuring and reinvention. ®