Enrique Lores

Enrique Lores (born 1964) is a Spanish business executive serving as president and chief executive officer of [[HP Inc.]], one of the world's largest technology companies specializing in personal computers, printers, and printing solutions. Appointed CEO in November 2019, Lores leads a company with annual revenue exceeding $50 billion, navigating the PC industry's evolution toward hybrid work models, sustainability challenges, and competition from Asian manufacturers. He represents one of the few Spanish-born CEOs leading a major American technology corporation.

Early life and education

Enrique Lores was born in 1964 in Zaragoza, Spain's fifth-largest city, located in the Aragon region. He grew up during Spain's transition from Franco's dictatorship to democracy, a period of significant political and economic transformation that expanded opportunities for education and international careers.

Lores attended the University of Zaragoza, earning a degree in Industrial Engineering. This technical education, combined with Spain's growing integration into the European economy during the 1980s, positioned him for a career with multinational technology companies seeking Spanish talent as they expanded European operations.

Career

HP career (1989-2019)

Lores joined Hewlett-Packard in 1989 at age 25, beginning his career in the company's printer division in Spain. He spent three decades at HP, progressing through increasingly senior roles across engineering, operations, and general management:

Early career (1989-2000): Worked in various engineering and product management roles within HP's printing business in Europe, developing expertise in printer hardware, consumables (ink and toner), and manufacturing operations.

Manufacturing and operations leadership (2000-2011): Held senior positions in HP's global manufacturing and supply chain operations, including responsibility for printer production facilities in Europe and Asia. He gained reputation for operational efficiency and cost management.

Category leadership (2011-2015): Served as Senior Vice President of Customer Support and Services, overseeing HP's global customer service operations across multiple product lines. Later became President of the Printing and Personal Systems business, managing HP's two largest revenue categories.

Separation and reorganization (2015-2019): When HP split into two companies in 2015 - HP Inc. (PCs and printers) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (servers, storage, services) - Lores remained with HP Inc., serving as President of Imaging, Printing, and Solutions. This role positioned him as heir apparent to then-CEO Dion Weisler.

HP Inc. CEO (2019-present)

In November 2019, Lores was appointed President and CEO of HP Inc., succeeding Dion Weisler who departed for family health reasons. Lores took over a company facing multiple challenges: - Declining PC sales as smartphone adoption continued - Printer market maturation and competition from low-cost Asian manufacturers - Shift from hardware sales to subscription and services models - Sustainability pressure to reduce plastic waste and energy consumption

Shortly after his appointment, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered HP's business environment. Remote work drove surge demand for PCs and home printers in 2020-2021, temporarily boosting revenues. However, this created difficult comparisons and inventory challenges in subsequent years.

Lores's strategy has focused on:

Hybrid work solutions: Positioning HP's PCs and printers for the post-pandemic hybrid work environment, emphasizing security, collaboration features, and device management for distributed workforces.

Subscription and services growth: Expanding HP's Instant Ink subscription program and device-as-a-service offerings to create recurring revenue streams beyond one-time hardware sales.

Sustainability initiatives: Implementing ambitious targets for recycled plastic content in products, carbon emissions reduction, and circular economy practices in response to corporate customer sustainability requirements.

Portfolio optimization: Streamlining product lines, focusing on profitable market segments (commercial PCs, premium consumer devices, enterprise printing), and exiting low-margin categories.

Operational efficiency: Implementing workforce reductions, real estate consolidation, and supply chain optimization to maintain profitability amid declining unit volumes.

Under Lores's leadership from 2019-2024, HP has maintained profitability and shareholder returns through share buybacks and dividends, though revenue has declined modestly as the PC market contracted from pandemic-era peaks. The company faces ongoing debates about its long-term growth prospects in maturing markets.

Personal life

Enrique Lores is married with two children. He maintains significant privacy regarding his personal and family life, including his wife's name and details about how they met. The family has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since Lores moved to HP's headquarters region, though he traveled extensively throughout his career for HP's global operations.

Despite his Spanish origins, Lores has spent the majority of his professional life in the United States and other international locations, making him culturally American in business context while maintaining Spanish identity and connections.

Colleagues describe Lores as approachable, detail-oriented, and operationally focused - characteristics developed through decades managing manufacturing and supply chain operations. He lacks the Silicon Valley founder mystique of some tech CEOs but brings deep institutional knowledge of HP's businesses, customers, and culture.

Leadership philosophy

Lores's leadership approach emphasizes:

Operational excellence: using his manufacturing and supply chain background to drive efficiency, cost management, and execution quality.

Customer focus: Understanding customer needs across consumer and commercial segments, with particular emphasis on serving enterprise customers' evolving technology requirements.

Sustainability as strategy: Positioning environmental responsibility not just as corporate social responsibility but as business strategy addressing customer requirements and regulatory pressures.

Portfolio discipline: Focusing resources on market segments where HP can compete effectively rather than pursuing market share across all categories.

Employee culture: Maintaining HP's historically strong corporate culture emphasizing innovation, integrity, and respect despite restructuring pressures.

Controversies and challenges

Workforce reductions: HP has implemented multiple rounds of job cuts under Lores's leadership, affecting thousands of employees globally. Critics argue the company prioritizes shareholder returns (dividends, buybacks) over workforce investment, creating morale challenges and potentially undermining long-term innovation capacity.

Printer business model criticism: HP's printer business relies heavily on consumables (ink and toner) sales, which critics characterize as exploitative given high margins and proprietary cartridge systems. Consumer advocates have criticized HP for blocking third-party cartridges and implementing firmware updates that disable unofficial supplies, though HP maintains these practices ensure quality and security.

Sustainability versus business model tensions: While HP has ambitious sustainability goals, the company's business model depends on regular hardware replacement cycles. Environmentalists question whether extending product lifecycles would conflict with revenue growth targets, suggesting potential greenwashing concerns.

PC market decline: HP's core PC business faces structural challenges including market saturation, component commoditization, and intense competition from Lenovo, Dell, and Asian manufacturers. Some analysts question whether HP can generate long-term growth or will gradually decline with the maturing PC market.

Activist investor pressure: HP faced a proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn in 2020, who criticized the company's planned acquisition of Hyperion and advocated for greater cost reductions. While HP prevailed, the episode highlighted investor skepticism about management's growth strategy.

Supply chain disruptions: Like all hardware manufacturers, HP faced significant supply chain challenges during 2020-2022, including semiconductor shortages and logistics disruptions. Critics argued HP's supply chain management was insufficient given Lores's operational background, though the company performed comparably to competitors.

Compensation and wealth

Lores's compensation as HP CEO has been substantial, typically ranging from $15-20 million annually including salary, bonuses, and stock awards. His 2023 compensation totaled approximately $17.5 million, making him among the higher-paid technology hardware CEOs though below levels at software and services companies.

His estimated net worth of $80-120 million derives primarily from accumulated HP stock grants, compensation over 30+ years, and investment returns. This wealth places him comfortably among successful corporate executives, though well below the levels achieved by technology company founders.

Lores's philanthropic activities have been relatively private, though he has supported education and engineering programs in both Spain and the United States.

Legacy and impact

Enrique Lores represents a relatively rare example of a European-born executive rising to CEO of a major American technology company, demonstrating that international career paths remain possible in increasingly nationalistic business environments.

His leadership of HP through the COVID-19 pandemic - navigating dramatic demand swings, supply chain disruptions, and remote work transformation - demonstrated operational competence in crisis conditions. Whether he can position HP for long-term growth in maturing markets remains the key test of his tenure.

As one of the few Spanish CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, Lores has raised Spain's profile in global technology leadership, though his career has been primarily conducted outside Spain.

HP's evolution under Lores - from hardware manufacturer toward services and subscription models while managing portfolio decline in traditional segments - may serve as a case study for other technology companies navigating industry maturation.

See also

• HP Inc.
• Hewlett-Packard
• Personal computer
• Printer (computing)