Month: July 2025

• Dell is shaking up leadership in its PC division amid stuttering growth since the pandemic.
• COO and vice chair Jeff Clarke will take on day-to-day leadership, he said in a memo seen by BI.
• The reorganization will “help accelerate decision-making and build momentum,” Clarke said.

Dell’s PC and hardware division is the company’s biggest revenue driver, but revenue has declined for the last three years.

Now, the company is parachuting one of its top executives to take the reins.

Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice chairman and COO, announced in an internal memo sent on Tuesday that he would take on “day-to-day leadership” of the consumer solutions group, or CSG, which produces Dell’s computers, monitors, and other hardware.

“This will help accelerate decision making and build momentum as the PC refresh cycle picks up speed,” he told staff in the memo, which BI has seen.

Clarke, who has been at Dell since 1987 and is a key lieutenant of billionaire founder Michael Dell, also announced a series of other leadership changes and told staff that “modernizing how we operate includes fine-tuning leader roles and reporting lines so we can go fast and win.”

The reorganization included appointing Sam Burd, previously the president of CSG, to lead Dell’s corporate strategy.

Dell splits its business into two units: CSG and ISG, the infrastructure solutions group.

Demand for AI is driving growth in the ISG division, which develops AI servers — ISG revenue was up 29% in Dell’s last full financial year.

However, CSG’s annual revenue has declined every year since 2022, when it peaked amid the pandemic-era boom in PC sales. Total CSG revenue was $48.6 billion in 2025, down 21% from its 2022 peak, and just above pre-pandemic levels.

Dell’s total annual revenue was up 8% in its 2025 financial year and the company’s stock is up 11% since January.

One employee who works in sales support for Dell’s CSG division told BI that Dell had been losing market share to competitors Lenovo and HP in specific categories like consumer and commercial notebooks and desktops for a few quarters.

“Our displays have always dominated for years, and I don’t see that changing,” the person added.

A Dell spokesperson told BI that the company is “focused on leading the commercial and consumer PC markets and capitalizing on the critical PC refresh cycle.”

“We will continue to evolve our business with that goal in mind,” the spokesperson said.

In a LinkedIn post on Thursday, CEO Michael Dell promoted the company’s AI PCs, saying they deliver “longer, multi-day battery life, smoother workflows, and the confidence that you’re ready for the AI era.”

“Whenever companies see challenges to their revenue and market share, as Dell recently has, it’s not uncommon to make organizational changes in an effort to bring new ideas into the mix,” Bob Woodward, the president and chief analyst at Technalysis Research, told BI.

Woodward said the reorganization was a “subtle rearranging of the chairs, but hopefully one that drives the kind of new ideas Dell needs to reinvigorate their critical PC business.”

The leadership changes come one week after Dell’s annual employee survey results were released internally.

Dell’s employee satisfaction score — known as the employee net promoter score, or eNPS — fell to 32, according to a transcript of a video update obtained by BI. Amid workforce reductions and RTO mandates, the eNPS has declined almost 50% in two years.

Read Jeff Clarke’s full memo below:

Team,

Modernizing how we operate includes fine-tuning leader roles and reporting lines so we can go fast and win. To that end, I’m making a few changes to my leadership team.

• I’ve asked Sam Burd to lead Corporate Strategy. Sam is an expert strategist and his BU leadership, deep market knowledge and consulting background will be instrumental as we plan for the future.
• Vivek Mohindra, who has led Corporate Strategy for the last two years, will take on a new role as Special Advisor, working directly with me on business-critical projects. I am grateful for the leadership and vision he brought to the Corporate Strategy Office and look forward to working with him in this new capacity.
• Dennis Hoffman and the Telecom Systems Business will move to ISG, with Dennis joining Arthur Lewis’s Leadership team.

For now, I will take on the day-to-day leadership of CSG. This will help accelerate decision making and build momentum as the PC refresh cycle picks up speed. The following CSG leaders will report directly to me:

• Alex Barretto wil lead an expanded team including PC Engineering and Services, CTO, Experinece Design Group and GOPO.
• Chris Cowger will continue to lead Global Consumer and eCommerce
• Bert Park will now lead Displays, Docks, Partner Software and Client Peripherals
• Karen Plotkin will lead Product Operations, Strategy and Transformation
• Kevin Terwilliger will continue to lead PC Product Management

The rest of the CSG leaders and their teams will report to one of the leaders above. Alex, Chris, Bert, Karen and Kevin will host team meetings later in the week to share more details.

As many of you know, my CSG roots run deep. I care a lot about this business and believe in our portfolio and our people.

I also believe we have a winning hand, but we’ve got to play it right. Let’s stay focused. Let’s go all in. And let’s win.

Jeff

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• Business Insider spoke with successful women across various industries about their morning routines.
• Most said they wake up around 6 a.m. to ensure productivity and time for themselves.
• Some then exercise and spend time in the sauna, while others host dance parties with their kids.

I have good news and bad news.

Let’s start with the latter: There’s no single morning routine that’s guaranteed to make every person productive. I know, it’s a bummer.

The good news, though, is that there are numerous recipes for success. So, if meditating and morning runs don’t work for you, there are other methods.

Business Insider spoke with seven women who work at the top of their fields across various industries. From morning dance parties to sips of lemon water, here’s what gets their days going.

A professional dancer prioritizes hydration and exercise in the mornings.

Ashley Everett, 36, has spent her career dancing, modeling, creating content, and even serving as captain of Beyoncé’s dance team.

Years of touring and “living a late-night life” have made Everett the opposite of a morning person, but she pushes herself to wake up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. most days.

“I sleep with a big water jug next to me and try to drink it first thing in the morning,” she told BI. “And I try not to look at my phone immediately. I don’t want to start feeding myself all of that anxiety.”

She usually grabs a quick breakfast — like a bagel and yogurt — before weight training around 7 a.m., which she does three days a week alongside her boyfriend, a personal trainer and “accountability partner.”

If they don’t have a session planned, she likes to do yoga or some form of cardio, like cycling, followed by recovering in her home sauna. But she doesn’t work out every day.

“It’s unrealistic,” she said, adding that she sometimes prioritizes herself in other ways, like completing a skincare regimen.

“It’s about finding time for me in the calm moments,” she said.

A makeup mogul scrolls Instagram before heading to a hip-hop class.

Bobbi Brown, 68, is a legend in the beauty industry. She founded her namesake makeup line in 1991 and returned in 2020 as the CEO of a new cosmetics brand, Jones Road.

She told BI that most days, she wakes up around 6:30 a.m., lets her dogs outside, and then has her first of three morning drinks: 16 ounces of water mixed with either AG1 powder, fresh lemon juice, or electrolytes.

As soon as she’s finished, she enjoys a double espresso in bed while scrolling through the news, social media, and Substack on her iPad.

“Sometimes, I go down a rabbit hole on Instagram,” Brown said. “I do that, scare myself silly, then jump up and exercise before I do anything else.”

Brown likes to weight train or attend hip-hop classes taught by instructor Lloyd Pearson. Most mornings, though, she takes long walks and calls her friends.

“It’s the time I find myself the most peaceful to talk, and not rushed or distracted,” she said. “I usually call someone in the UK, or I have a couple of girlfriends I know are up early and could talk. Then I get my business calls out of the way. I usually walk for about an hour and fifteen minutes.”

Another healthy staple of her routine is a protein shake made with almond milk, chocolate Vital Proteins powder, a scoop of natural peanut butter, Greek yogurt, ice, and occasionally, a frozen banana.

“I try to make the best choices as much as possible, but not beat myself up when I do something that doesn’t make me feel great,” she said. “If I wake up in the morning feeling inflamed or puffy or tired, I stop and say, ‘OK, what did I do yesterday? Did I not drink enough water?’ I guess it would be called intuitive wellness. Listen to yourself.”

A healthtech advisor relies on iced coffee and Amazon Alexa to start her day.

Stephanie Davis, 38, was named a BI rising star in equity research for her work at banks including JPMorgan and Citi. Now, she’s on advisory boards across the healthtech industry.

Davis said her mornings rarely start at the same time.

“Having a very set morning routine is a luxury for a lot of women,” she told BI. “So generally, I wake up around 7 a.m., but there are days when it has to be a lot earlier. Other days, I’m so burned out from the week that I try to sleep in a little bit more.”

She’s not a fan of alarm clocks and says waking up to loud noises sets a bad tone for the day, so she uses a $3,000 mattress pad from Eight Sleep, which warms to wake her up more naturally.

She then likes to take her dog Lucky for a walk — preferably before checking her email as a reminder that she “gets to be human” before starting work — and drinks an iced coffee “for survival.”

Davis also relies on technology in her home, and says Amazon Alexa handles a chunk of her routine.

“It opens the blinds, tells me the weather, runs through my schedule,” she said. “Sometimes, I play a mindfulness minute while I’m brushing my teeth. Alexa allows me to do a lot of things for myself and be educated on what I need for the day, without having to seek that information myself.”

What’s really key to Davis’ productive start is knowing that “the morning starts the night before.”

“Being a woman in business, it’s chaos. You’re the CEO of your franchise and the COO of your family,” she said. “So I look at my calendar the night before and say, ‘All right, these are the things that need to get done tomorrow in my finite 24 hours. Let me figure out how to fit it all in there.'”

A managing director likes to get a head start on work right after waking up.

Fatima Boolani, 38, is a managing director of software equity research at Citi, where she also serves as cohead of the company’s US software team.

She’s also a mom of two, so she wakes up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. each day to check work emails, news, research reports, and more.

“My priority is to get a head start on the day such that, while I’m shifting gears momentarily for personal and family reasons, I have a solid footing before I jump back into work around 8 a.m. or so,” Boolani said.

Her drink of choice is a “hot, strong cup of coffee,” and Larabars are her go-to morning snack before breakfast.

While exercise is a key ingredient to her success, Boolani said she prefers midday workouts.

For her, mornings are about using a limited amount of time to her advantage and “filling that space and time with more intention.”

“I used to think waking up at 6 a.m. was so early,” she said. “But now, how much power can be packed in that punch of an hour — especially with two children — is really awesome.”

A CEO of a beauty brand tests her new products while working out each morning.

Wende Zomnir, 57, has spent decades in the beauty industry. She co-founded Urban Decay in 1996, led the brand until 2022, and then launched her beauty line Caliray.

At this point in her career, she wakes up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. each day and instantly drinks 20 ounces of water. Her second morning drink is coffee or coconut water with some protein powder.

She chooses the latter on days that she exercises, one of the most vital aspects of her routine.

“I lift, practice yoga, play tennis, or go rucking in the soft sand most mornings,” she told BI. “I love playing beach volleyball, surfing, snowboarding, riding my bike — I like to move! And I test out makeup formulas I’m working on while I do it all.”

Zomnir said waking up early and jumping into physical activities helps her focus on her role as CEO and as a leader of her family.

“I don’t have to be thinking about when I’m going to squeeze my workout in later in the day,” she said. “Physical activity is my drug of choice, so I work better when I’ve worked out.”

“As my kids got older, they needed me less in the morning, so I was able to shift from afternoon workouts to the morning,” she added. “Making adjustments that sync with the life stages of my family and being willing to optimize my routine has made the biggest impact.”

A fintech communications CEO says dance breaks are essential.

Grace Keith Rodriguez, 40, is the CEO of Caliber Corporate Advisers, a fintech communications agency.

She gets the most done when she wakes up around 5:30 a.m. That gives her time to shower, get dressed, brew a cup of coffee (from Little Seed Coffee Roasters, a company founded by her sister and brother-in-law), and read the news from her front porch.

Then, she can enjoy one of the most special parts of her mornings: a dance party with her two children.

“It shakes the sillies out and gets you through the day,” she told BI. “It’s no cold plunge, but it sort of has the same effect.”

Keith Rodriguez’s job also involves a lot of travel, so her routine changes slightly when she’s on the road. Namely, she likes to take long walks around the city she’s visiting.

“I’d rather do that than sit in the hotel gym,” she said. “I like to get out and see the city, because you usually don’t get an opportunity to do that at conferences.”

No matter where she is, though, she says her children have changed how she starts her days.

“Kids have made me realize how important routine is,” Keith Rodriguez said. “I’ve always known that, but it just makes it so obvious that you can’t ignore it. When you start the day on the right foot, it’s really important for them, too.”

A chief marketing and impact officer listens to inspirational audio clips.

Sadé Muhammad, 34, is Time Magazine’s CMO. She usually checks her phone first thing in the morning, but doesn’t scroll on social media. Instead, she opens her Notes app.

“I have a bunch of affirmations for different categories,” she told BI. “Based on what I’m feeling that day, whether it’s personal, career, fitness, etc., I’ll lean into what I need to fill me up.”

Muhammad also reviews a list of personal goals to monitor her progress and listens to 10-minute inspirational audios on the entrepreneur-focused app Alux.

Her breakfast changes day-to-day, though she usually drinks water with lemon in the mornings. Her early workouts also vary, but she particularly enjoys strength training and morning walks.

“Walking is my favorite physical activity,” she said. “I like to go for a long walk in the park or through my neighborhood, and I’m either listening to an audiobook, some music, or I’m on a call.”

According to Muhammad, this flexible routine not only sets her day at a good pace but also allows her to focus on herself and her toddler.

“If I want the chance to be present with him when he wakes up, but also to be present with myself and have some me time, I need to be up between 5 and 7 a.m.,” she said.

A skincare brand founder says lemon water and her personal trainer are her two constants.

Erin Piper, 43, is a therapist, mother of two, and the founder of the skincare brand Saint Crewe.

Throughout most of the year, she gets up around 6:15 a.m. to wake her 8-year-old and 11-year-old children and get them to school.

“They are certainly old enough for an alarm clock, but somehow, that alarm clock is always me,” Piper said. “Since it’s summer, though, I usually have a few minutes to myself before all the chaos starts.”

Most days, she picks up her phone, checks beauty-industry news, and engages in “some mindless scrolling.”

“I’m on my phone entirely too much in the mornings,” Piper said. “While I would love to get the recommended 30 minutes of sunlight before checking my phone, that rarely — OK, never — happens.”

Rather than having a big breakfast, Piper usually prefers to sip lemon water and eat a protein bar ahead of her morning workout with a “dear friend” and trainer.

Most important to Piper, though, is embracing the chaos and unpredictability of her mornings.

“Between having a family and launching a skincare brand, I’ve had to skip all sorts of things over the past few years, and no morning looks the same,” she said. “But I do know that I’m a nicer person with coffee and exercise, so I try to keep that consistent.”

• My son is heading to college, so I’m in a group chat with the other moms of his future roommates.
• The moms are texting frequently, laying out their Amazon carts, and buying expensive kitchen tools.
• All the planning can get frustrating, but I know we parents are just struggling to let go.

The first time I sent a son to college, move-in was simple. He shared a four-person suite. Two of his high school friends were on one side. There was a shared bathroom in the middle, and the university assigned him a roommate with the same first name. I never met that roommate and couldn’t tell you his last name.

The school provided most of what they needed, including furniture, a fridge, and a microwave. We added towels, bedding, a bathmat, a laundry bin, and a few basics. It was enough. They all settled in and figured it out.

Now, my younger son is heading off to college. And somehow, a group text with other parents turned what should be a rite of passage into something that feels a little more like a wedding registry.

The group chat started out helpful

The dorm group chat began with a few moms. When three of our sons committed to the same university and decided to room together, one mom created a new thread called “Dorm Room Group.”

We invited our sons into the chat, too, but the moms kept the chat going. The boys occasionally chimed in, usually with something like: “Sup, mom.”

The chat was helpful at first. We shared orientation links, move-in dates, and dorm layout videos.

One mom then found a Facebook post in a university parent group from a mom in Florida. She suggested we connect about making the woman’s son the fourth roommate.

“He looks normal! Maybe we should snag him! He might take you guys to Florida to visit,” she texted the group.

Our sons followed him on Instagram. He ghosted them.

But then came the espresso machine

The shopping picked up one summer afternoon. They started filling their Amazon carts with things I never even considered buying for my sons.

They told me I should purchase a matching backup rug for the bathroom. They also informed me that they were already stocked with toilet cleaner and Scrubbing Bubbles.

Then I got a text that made me a little jealous. It was a photo of one of the boys who got an espresso maker for his birthday, “for the dorm.” I thought it was a bit extravagant for a dorm room; I didn’t even have one in my own kitchen.

But then I wondered what other kitchen appliances they might need. I’ve had my eye on one of those rapid egg cookers.

The texts kept coming. We compared meal plans and even chose the dorm room color scheme. We discussed every aspect of our sons’ future lives. They remained mostly silent throughout the chats.

There’s more than one way to pack

The other moms in the group chat are thoughtful and involved. This is the first time they’re sending a child to college, and they care. I do, too.

But I’ve done this before and never wanted to be this involved. Maybe I’m just more hands-off or a little cheap. I sent my older son with what he needed, not a full redesign. His dorm room didn’t need a theme.

At one point, I texted the group: “My first roommate decorated her side of the room in clowns, and it did not occur to me to think it was weird. Or too weird, I guess.”

My dorm experience started in 1988. The walls were painted concrete blocks. My side had a lace-trimmed pillow, pandas, and a gorilla poster from my mom’s teaching stash. The bathrooms were down the hall.

It wasn’t perfect, and it certainly wasn’t social media-worthy, but I survived. My son will, too.

They’ll be fine, even if the towels don’t match

My son hasn’t said much about the group chat, but I wonder if he and the other kids are overwhelmed by all the planning happening around them. I certainly get frustrated by it at times.

When I suggested colors for his comforter and asked him what else he wanted, he just shrugged.

“I’ll figure it out,” he says. And I think he will.

We’re all just struggling with letting them go to build their own lives. What we really want, I think, is proof that they’ll be OK without us.

But I remind myself that they’ll be fine, even if the towels don’t match or no one brings an egg cooker.

What they really need can’t be packed in a bin — and they’ll figure that out, too, just like we did.

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has shut down Congress, triggered a revolt among Republicans, and left President Donald Trump grasping for distractions. 

But even though demands for the President to release the full, un-edited Epstein files grow louder by the day, no one is demanding that the survivors Epstein trafficked come forward. This admission reflects a new era of the #MeToo movement—and remarkable shift in who we believe as a society bears the responsibility for addressing the aftermath of sexual violence.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

It is as though our society has finally conceded, at long last, that it is incredibly difficult to speak up about sexual misconduct. That understanding, in and of itself, signifies progress.

Epstein allegedly trafficked dozens of young girls over the years. When former U.S. Attorney and Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta controversially gave Epstein a non-prosecution agreement in 2007, the deal also extended to “any unnamed co-conspirators.” To this day, we still do not know who they are and the Department of Justice refuses to say. But it is very likely that the survivors recognize the high-profile men to whom they were trafficked. 

For some, this might beg what seems, at first glance, an obvious question: Where are the survivors? And why have they not come forward to tell us who is on the list?

But in fact there are a number of reasons why victims of such crimes might choose not to come forward, all of which speak to the challenges women face when they speak out about abuse. First, it is terrifying to take on powerful people in the full glare of the spotlight. We should know. Nearly a decade ago, we filed lawsuits against Fox News and its then-chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. At the time, Ailes was the most powerful man in media and one of the most powerful men in the world. 

We were each put through the wringer, becoming avatars for those who wanted to weaponize our stories for their own ends. Coming forward had a personal toll that went beyond a cost to our careers. It was lonely to be in the center of a maelstrom. The lives we built suddenly became off-kilter. We felt like strangers to ourselves, even as we followed the same daily routines. Many of our family and friends sympathized with us—but couldn’t completely understand. 

We were both adults when we filed our lawsuits, each with successful careers, stable personal lives, and considerable privilege. Even for us, the balance of power between ourselves and the people we accused of wrongdoing was a gaping chasm. How much worse is it for survivors who were trafficked as young girls to wealthy middle-aged men, some of whom likely were and continue to be immensely powerful? 

For once, it feels like society knows the answer to that question, which may be why no one is asking survivors to come forward at this moment. 

This progress is due, in part, to the many survivors who have bravely shared their stories over the past several years, including talking about why it is so hard to do so.

Despite these difficulties, there is incredible power in telling one’s story. As much as coming forward cost us in some ways, it was also the bravest thing we’ve ever done, and we’d do it all over again if given the choice. For every cowardly troll who tried to bully us, there were dozens of friends, family, colleagues, and complete strangers who reached out to show their support and share their own experiences. It was overwhelming and beautiful. There is nothing like the freedom and peace that comes with speaking up. 

Today, there are many courageous organizations and individuals doing transformative work to help survivors seek justice, speak their truths, and ultimately change how people think about these issues. This is why we are committed to eradicating the silencing mechanisms that protect predators at the expense of survivors, including the non-disclosure agreements that some of these survivors may have signed when they were younger. We helped get two landmark federal laws passed that give survivors more protections to speak up at work. 

Some have downplayed the impact of the #MeToo movement and questioned its impact. But the shift in public discourse around the Epstein case shows the subtle but profound way our culture has changed. Today, the pressure is rightly placed on those in power—those who enabled abuse or participated in it—and not on the survivors. That is real progress. We have so much more work to do, but let’s also acknowledge this progress as well.

The decision to speak about trauma is personal, and every survivor deserves to make that choice on her own terms. To the women and girls abused by Jeffrey Epstein: you owe nothing to anyone. But you deserve a world that believes you, supports you, and protects you. And there is an army of people who will continue working to build that world with you.