Carly Fiorina

Carly Fiorina
Fiorina in February 2017
Born
Cara Carleton Sneed

(1954-09-06) September 6, 1954 (age 70)
Austin, Texas, U.S.
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Maryland, College Park (MBA)
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MS)
Occupations
  • Businesswoman
  • politician
  • financier
  • broker
OrganizationGood360
Political partyRepublican
Board member ofColonial Williamsburg Foundation
Spouses
  • Todd Bartlem (1977–1984)
Frank Fiorina
​
(m. 1985)​
Children2 stepdaughters
RelativesJoseph Sneed (father)
WebsiteCampaign website
Signature

Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (/ˌfiːəˈriːnə/; née Sneed; born September 6, 1954) is an American businesswoman and politician, known primarily for her tenure as chief executive officer (CEO) of Hewlett-Packard (HP) from 1999 to 2005. Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune Top-20 company.[1]

Fiorina started her career at AT&T and subsequently worked at Lucent Technologies, where she led the joint venture with Philips.

In 2002, Fiorina oversaw what was then the largest technology sector merger in history, in which HP acquired rival personal computer manufacturer, Compaq. The transaction made HP the world's largest seller of personal computers.[2][3] HP subsequently laid off 30,000 U.S. employees. Nonetheless, the number of employees exceeded the pre-merger figure and grew to 150,000 during her tenure.[4][5][6] In February 2005, she was forced to resign as CEO and chair following a boardroom disagreement.[7][8][9] She subsequently served as Chair of the philanthropic organization Good360.[10][11]

Fiorina was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010, she won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in California, but lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer.[12][13] Fiorina was a candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, and was for seven days the vice-presidential running mate of Ted Cruz until he suspended his campaign. In 2020, Fiorina endorsed the presidential campaign of Democrat Joe Biden.[14]

  1. ^ Sellers, Patricia (March 23, 2009). "Behind Fortune's Most Powerful Women". Fortune. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  2. ^ Grocer, Stephen (August 16, 2007). "The H-P/Compaq Union, From Controversy to Success". WSJ Blogs – Deal Journal. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  3. ^ Bagley, Constance. Managers and the Legal Environment: Strategies for the 21st Century, p. 599 (Cengage Learning 2015).
  4. ^ "Carly Fiorina: Secretary to CEO". Carly Fiorina: Secretary to CEO. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Farley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Goldman, David. "Behind Carly Fiorina's 30,000 HP layoffs", CNN (September 21, 2015): "She has also noted – correctly – that despite bruising layoffs, she hired more people than she fired. HP and Compaq had a combined 148,100 employees just before she was hired in 1999, and 150,000 by the time she was fired in 2005."
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference stanford was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference PuiWing was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Burrows was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Good360 interview NBC, September 13, 2013
  11. ^ Latest quest October 8, 2014, Forbes
  12. ^ "U.S. Senate California". ABC News. Archived from the original on May 10, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  13. ^ McKinley, Jesse (November 3, 2010). "In California, Boxer Wins Senate Race, and Brown Is Leading for Governor". The New York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
  14. ^ Stankiewicz, Kevin (September 24, 2020). "'Character counts' — Carly Fiorina, GOP presidential candidate in 2016, explains why she'll vote for Biden". CNBC. Retrieved March 6, 2023.