if she does to Kenya
What she did to HP.
THEY ARE SO FUCKED.
United States president Joe Biden has announced his intention to nominate former HPE and eBay CEO Meg Whitman as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Kenya. The Biden administration's announcement of the planned nomination reminds us that Whitman has served as CEO of eBay, Hewlett Packard Enterprise …
This isn't exactly "would you like Paris, London, Canberra or Rome?"
The only place it looks good next to is Port Moresby.
However Nairobi is not all bad if you are not directly involved in the corruption, crime and violence, as it is on an elevated plateau with quite a nice climate.
She will be in a good place to spectate as the Chinese finish off taking over Africa. It might remind her of how another once great industry, constructed by fabulously imaginative and forward thinking engineers, was allowed to fall into ruin by maladministration and incompetence.
"Maybe it's a Trojan Horse"
That's giving far too much credit to both Whitman and Biden.
It is what it is - rich, well-connected party donor gets a well-paid cushy gig. In other news, the Vatican have refused to comment on growing speculation that Pope Francis is, indeed, a Catholic, and bears would shit in the woods if there were any woods left.
... rich, well-connected party donor gets a well-paid cushy gig.
Yes, it may be cushy and well paid but she already has the money and perks such a gig would get her.
If confirmed, she is going there to do something else.
But odds are that she will also screw that up.
Wait for it.
O.
Funny story: Meg is a Republican. In 2010 she was the Republican candidate for governor of California (and lost to uber-Democrat Jerry Brown).
" its only the masses that are fool enough to draw hard lines in the sand... "
Oh, to have a general population that drew hard lines in the sand based on political views! Unfortunately what seems to happen instead is that they draw hard lines in concrete based on their political PARTY, irrespective of whether their party keeps to any political principles.
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>If confirmed, she is going there to do something else.
Ambassador does have a bunch of perks. Apart from the free mansion you get an army of flunkies doing what you say, private planes, your own pet Marines and legal immunity if your family drunk drives over people.
It's the next best thing to actually being a CEO
Hey give Biden credit, he's protecting American companies! If Whitman is off acting as an Ambassador in Africa (Ambassadors dont actually do much except attend parties and sign documents written by their staff), then she cant destroy any more American companies by being appointed as their CEO!
Biden protecting American companies since the last election! :P
>>Hey give Biden credit, he's protecting American companies! If Whitman is off acting as an Ambassador
>>in Africa (Ambassadors dont actually do much except attend parties and sign documents written by
>>their staff), then she cant destroy any more American companies by being appointed as their CEO!
She got the job because Ginny is still busy Consulting IBM.
Disappointing that El Reg didn't mention that Nairobi is a tech and finance hub for Africa. There are some great startups and incubators, and the US government has been trying to facilitate investment in the sector.
If Whitman focuses on tech (and doesn't stick her oar into politics or development) and fosters links between the US and Kenyan tech sectors, this could actually be great for Kenya. Just don't take her management advice...
https://www.africatechsummit.com/nairobi/africa-startup-summit/
https://startuplist.africa/location/nairobi
Are US political parties so bankrupt [1] that $110k is a donation worthy of a 4-year overseas vacation?
I mean, that's what my house costs, in a suburb, in a third world country! It sounds extremely cheap for the levels of power we are talking about. What would one get if donates 1 meeellion?
[1] Financially speaking. Morally, we know they are, left, right and center.
It was more that she was a prominent "successful" business leader who told Trump to get stuffed.
Thus proving to legions of Fox News voters that the democrats weren't a bunch of communists about to put the bourgeois elite into gulags.
That anybody thought this would sway any voter is a bigger example of how bankrupt both parties are.
(HP itself donated millions, but scrupulously to both parties - they don't care who wins, they just need representatives on both sides to vote for whatever HP needs)
There's a lot more to US politics than the election for President. In 2020 Trump was the Republican nominee because he was the incumbent. Biden got the Democratic nod because he was the ultimate compromise candidate, the one candidate that was particularly difficult to attack using the usual tactics -- he's too conservative and far too well known to smear him.
Allowing Trump four more years would have meant the end of democracy in the US. You're already seeing signs of this, the most obvious being the appointment of judges who are prepared to block or strike down laws that the conservatives don't like. (This isn't just the Supreme Court -- the rot runs down the entire federal judiciary.) The legislature is managed using a combination of techniques but recently the push to appoint party hacks to run elections (and with powers to suspend or overturn them) in key "swing" states. Then there's the push to make senior civil service appointments "at the discretion of the President" -- that is, political. There's much more but this isn't the place to discuss this. Suffice to say that running a "Summit for Democracy" at the moment is an exercise in irony.
It would be value to the United States if Meg just didn't return. Better yet, have Biden come visit and let him stay there forever too!
Having worked in HPE during her time there, she might sound good at first but she can only do what she thinks is right for her and her other friends of privilege. No good will come to the common people there, or the common people anywhere.
Well it cost Kelly Craft about two million dollars in 2017 and Bruce Heyman before that about 1.7 million dollars in 2013, so you're probably looking at a cool two and a half mil these days.
Frankly though I think you'd be better of selecting somewhere a touch warmer and generally well-equipped with first class flights and five star hotels but a distinct lack of inquiring press corps.
Having travelled, and even lived, in Western, Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure that Kenya would be top of my list of places to live on this incredible continent. Mind-you I'm probably slightly prejudiced, having been robbed on two occasions within the space of three weeks there!
On second thoughts, this is Meg Whitman we're talking about...
Without defending Meg Whitman against some of what is being said here, it is worth noting that she took over as CEO of HP at a time when the company was in crisis, after Leo Apotheker had been ejected following the disastrous period in which he pushed through the Autonomy acquisition ($8.8bn writedown). Apotheker has been appointed following the departure of Mark Hurd who was responsible for a number of acquisitions, including EDS ($8bn writedown) and Palm.
I think it would be fair to say that Whitman was liked more by the workforce at HP than either of those two predecessors. Hurd was detested by many, and, it could be argued, did more to damage the company than any of the other CEOs; Apotheker seemed initially popular, but opinions changed quickly when the results of his decisions were seen. Carly Fiorina's 5-year stint before Hurd had not been seen as a success but at least her HP/Compaq merger resulted in a combination of two companies with some similarities in culture and product lines (which led to a need for rationalization, some of which was done quite quickly and effectively - anyone remember HP Netservers?).
When it came to Meg Whitman's dismemberment of HP, most felt that the knife was run through in the right places, and as the article points out, if one looks at stock price HP Inc has not done badly with its focus on PCs/laptops and printing. The "spin-merge" of HP Enterprise Services (basically what had been EDS) with CSC, to form DXC, also appeared to be a rational as a way for HPE to make an exit from the outsourcing business. Finally, the selling of a lot of software product lines (most of which had been previous acquisitions, including Autonomy and Mercury Interactive) made some sense although HPE continues to buy other software where it is thought to align with the company's strategy (e.g. Zerto, recently).