More than 200 HP summer interns from around the world tuned in earlier this month to hear career advice from a former HP intern himself: Chief Executive Officer Enrique Lores.
Lores came from Spain to San Diego as an intern working on printer technology for HP more than three decades ago, kicking off a career that took him to three different continents and a variety of senior level positions in Personal Systems, Print, Industrial, and Services businesses.
“I have had the opportunity to work almost in every business, across every function of the company,” Lores says. “For me, it has been a great journey.”
The ability to take on different roles, challenges, and live in different locales is “part of the reason I have stayed with the company for so long,” Lores says. “I never dreamed I would end up being the CEO.”
HP interns — university students who chimed in from Costa Rica, Spain, Texas, Idaho, and California — asked everything from how he’s leveraged his technical background (Lores holds an electrical engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia) to what he’s reading right now (a Spanish noir mystery).
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Huzaifa Ambakhutwala, an R&D security software intern in Spring, Texas, asked Lores about the tradeoffs of pursuing a technical career versus climbing the corporate ladder.
“Is it better to stay lower in the hierarchy and do more innovative things with technology?” he asked.
Lores rebutted that he doesn’t find the managerial parts of his role as less interesting than the technical aspects. His background in engineering prepared him for the collaborative problem-solving he does every day.
