The Billionaire’s Startup

MINUTES AFTER MEG

Whitman announced she was stepping down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in November 2017, her phone rang. It was Jeffrey Katzenberg, whom she has known since they both worked for Disney in the late 1980s and early 1990s — Whitman was in strategic planning; Katzenberg ran the film studio. ‘What are you doing?’ ” Whitman remembers her friend asking. “I don’t know,” she replied.

“I’m the chairman of Teach for America. I’ll probably do stuff with my husband and travel.”’ And I said, ‘Knowing you, Jeffrey, I’m having dinner with you.’ ”