Antonio Neri tells Biden HPE Is 'Committed to Working' With New Administration

HPE CEO Antonio Neri has sent a formal letter to President-elect Joe Biden offering his and HPE’s help in battling COVID-19 and rebuilding the U.S. economy.

Neri in an open letter to Biden on an HPE blog post, said, “I want you to know that HPE is committed to working constructively with your administration to leverage information technology, including high performance computing (HPC), to fight COVID-19, further scientific discovery and rebuild the U.S. economy in a manner that supports the well-being of all Americans, bridge the digital divide to foster greater opportunity for American families, and advance racial justice and inclusion”.

Neri urged Biden not to hesitate to call upon him or any of HPE’s top talent as the president-elect convenes the COVID-19 task force. Neri said, “HPE maintains the commitment we made from the start of the pandemic to provide dedicated scientists, engineers, and computing systems to accelerate the research and discovery of a vaccine and new medicines and therapeutics to fight COVID-19.”

On the COVID-19 front, HPE high-performance computing teams are working with leading research centers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to better understand the new COVID-19 strain and develop drug treatments. HPE is also partnering with the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium with the (Department of Energy) DoE and other industry and academic organizations to provide supercomputing software and applications expertise free of charge to help researchers port, run, and optimize essential applications to combat this pandemic.

As for the economy, Neri said, HPE supports the president-elect’s “ambitious plan to get America’s workforce back on its feet and accelerate the nation’s transformation towards a true 21st century” digital economy.

In working with federal, state and local governments, HPE has seen firsthand the “importance of providing robust funding for our digital infrastructure with the same urgency” as physical infrastructure, said Neri.

“We are eager to partner with your administration on innovative approaches to modernize our nation’s digital infrastructure -- helping our economy recover and evolve well into the future,” said Neri.

HPE is also ready to help the federal government bridge the “digital divide” for students by “extending outdoor Wi-Fi for schools and public buildings, outfitting buses with wireless technology and driving them into low-income neighborhoods,” said Neri. He said HPE would also like to help establish “more permanent enterprise-level solutions that provide equitable access to the internet” for entire communities of students and their families.

Finally, Neri said HPE is “committed to unconditional inclusion, and believe it is incumbent upon those of us with means and platforms to create change by taking action to advance racial justice and equity.”

HPE, in fact, has established a global HPE Inclusion and Diversity Council to develop a detailed plan to ensure “equal opportunities” for all HPE employees.