Celebrating my teammates today and every day

Almost exactly a year ago, I was wandering the crowded hallways of our San Jose office, taking for granted what it felt like to bump into friends while grabbing lunch in the Café or filling up my water bottle in the kitchen. I had just taken my last work trip to Houston and we had just finished Q1 20 earnings. And then, on March 13, the world as we knew it changed with our global offices closing their doors and each of us setting up shop in our make-shift home offices.

 I returned to the San Jose campus this week for earnings, which I loved even more than I imagined I would. I found last year’s Q1 20 binder still on my desk. (It came in handy because I just replaced the contents with this year’s results for my prep with Antonio!) But, the hallways are still quiet and the visits to any office in our global footprint are still “special exceptions,” versus regular occurrences. And, I really miss all of you.

You deserve to hear how proud I am of everything you accomplish, how grateful I am for your unwavering commitment to constantly raising the bar, and how much I value our teamwork.

Over the last year, we have faced the kinds of challenges for which there are no “Communications 101” manuals. We’ve had to navigate the unthinkable. We’ve had to engage in entirely new ways and rethink how we do our work as communications advisors. We’ve had to be the calm, rational, voices of reason, offering our internal stakeholders a plan, even if that plan had to continually be re-written, tossed out, and written again. Not only did we have the honor of showing the world who HPE really is, we definitively branded our Global Communications function as one characterized by determination, optimism, insightful creativity, and collaboration. 

 I long for the days when we’ll see each other again in person. But, for now, I’ll settle for sorting through some of the pictures I’ve collected over the last three years that capture special, corny, funny, important moments we have shared together. We’ll make more memories and take more pictures. Until then, please know how very much I appreciate you.

 Jennifer