Carly Fiorina

Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (; 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 is the first woman to lead a Fortune Top-20 company. She is also known for her candidacies for U.S. Senate in California in 2010 and for president of the United States in 2016.

Fiorina is a graduate of Stanford University (BA, 1976), University of Maryland, College Park (MBA, 1980) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, 1989). She joined AT&T as a management trainee in 1980. In 1990, she was named senior vice president and oversaw the company's hardware and systems division. In 1995, Fiorina led corporate operations for Lucent Technologies, Inc., a spin-off of AT&T's Western Electric and Bell Labs divisions. She played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of a successful stock and company launch strategy. Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent's consumer products sector. In 1997, she was named group president for Lucent's US$19 billion global service-provider business. That year, Fiorina chaired a US$2.5 billion joint venture between Lucent's consumer communications and Royal Philips Electronics, under the name Philips Consumer Communications (PCC). In the October 12, 1998 edition of Fortune, Fiorina was described as "The Most Powerful Woman in American Business".

Fiorina was named chief executive officer of HP in July 1999. 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. 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. In February 2005, she was forced to resign as CEO and chair following a boardroom disagreement. She subsequently served as chair of the philanthropic organization Good360.

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. Fiorina was a candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary; after her campaign ended, she became the vice-presidential running mate of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz until he suspended his campaign.

Cara Carleton Sneed was born on September 6, 1954, in Austin, Texas, the daughter of Madelon Montross (née Juergens) and Joseph Tyree Sneed III. The name "Carleton", from which "Carly" is derived, has been used in every generation of the Sneed family since the Civil War. At the time of her birth, Fiorina's father was a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He would later become the dean of Duke University School of Law, a Deputy U.S. Attorney General, and a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Fiorina's mother was an abstract painter. Fiorina is mainly of English and German ancestry. She was raised Episcopalian.

Fiorina has said that she was a Brownie but did not become a Girl Scout due to her family's frequent moves. She attended Channing School in London. Fiorina also attended five different high schools, including one in Ghana. She graduated from Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina. At one time, she aspired to be a classical pianist.

Fiorina received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and medieval history from Stanford University in 1976. She worked as a secretary for Kelly Services in the summers during her college years. She attended UCLA School of Law in 1976, but dropped out after one semester. Fiorina worked as a receptionist for six months at a real estate firm, Marcus & Millichap. She later moved up to a broker position there. When she married in 1977, she and her husband moved to Bologna, Italy, where he did graduate work; in Italy, she tutored Italian businessmen in the English language.

In 1980, Fiorina received a Master of Business Administration in marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1989, she obtained a Master of Science degree in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellows program.

In 1980, Fiorina joined AT&T as a management trainee, selling telephone services to large federal agencies. In 1990, she became the company's first female officer; she was named senior vice president and oversaw the company's hardware and systems division. She later headed the company's North American operations.

In 1995, Fiorina led corporate operations for Lucent Technologies, Inc., a spin-off of AT&T's Western Electric and Bell Labs divisions. In that capacity, she reported to Lucent chief executive Henry B. Schacht. She played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of a successful stock and company launch strategy. The spin-off became one of the most successful IPOs in U.S. history, raising US$3 billion.

Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent's consumer products sector. In 1997, she was named group president for Lucent's US$19 billion global service-provider business, overseeing marketing and sales for the company's largest customer segment. That year, Fiorina chaired a US$2.5 billion joint venture between Lucent's consumer communications and Royal Philips Electronics, under the name Philips Consumer Communications (PCC). In the October 12, 1998 edition of Fortune, Fiorina was described as "The Most Powerful Woman in American Business".

Lucent added 22,000 jobs, revenues grew from US$19 billion to US$38 billion, and the company's market share increased in every region for every product. According to Fortune, Lucent increased sales by lending money to their own customers: "In a neat bit of accounting magic, money from the loans began to appear on Lucent's income statement as new revenue while the dicey debt got stashed on its balance sheet as an allegedly solid asset". Lucent's stock price grew 10-fold.

In July 1999, Hewlett-Packard Company named Fiorina chief executive officer. Fiorina succeeded Lewis Platt and was chosen over internal candidate Ann Livermore. Matthew Boyle of Fortune magazine said of Fiorina's hiring as HP's first woman CEO that, "Carly Fiorina didn't just break the glass ceiling, she obliterated it, as the first woman to lead a FORTUNE 20 company."

In October 2006, Fiorina published an autobiography entitled Tough Choices, about her career and her views on issues, what constitutes a leader, how women can thrive in business, and the role technology will continue to play in reshaping the world. A review by NPR Books noted that "The book covers Fiorina's rise and fall as America's most powerful female executive."

Earlier books by others about Fiorina's role in the merger at HP included: Backfire, (2003) by Peter Burrows, and Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett-Packard, (2003), by George Anders. A 2003 review by The New York Times of these books said, "Two new books about the deal and its main champion – Hewlett-Packard's chair and chief executive officer, Carly Fiorina – show that there is much investors can glean immediately from this merger."

In October 2007, Fiorina signed with the Fox Business Network as a business commentator.

After resigning from HP, Fiorina served on the board of Revolution Health Group and computer security company Cybertrust in 2005. In 2006, she became a member of the board of directors for chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), but resigned from that board on November 30, 2009, with the company saying this was "because she planned to devote her full time and energy" to her Senate campaign. She had attended 17% of the TSMC directors' meetings in 2009 and 20% of TSMC directors' meetings in 2008. She served as a member of the MIT Corporation from 2004 to 2012. She was a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2005. She is an honorary fellow of the London Business School. In July 2012, Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia appointed her to the James Madison University Board of Visitors. In 2015, Fiorina received an honorary degree and delivered the commencement address at Southern New Hampshire University.

Fiorina is the chair and CEO of Carly Fiorina Enterprises, a business and charitable foundation. A spokesperson described Fiorina Enterprises as "...a nonprofit enterprise that helped Fiorina structure speaking engagements and appearances while providing the public with information about her activities..." The San Francisco Chronicle reported that, as of July 2009, she had "never registered her Carly Fiorina Enterprises to conduct business in California, either with the California secretary of state or the clerk of Santa Clara County, where Fiorina lives."

In April 2012, Fiorina became chair of Good360, a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Virginia, which helps companies donate excess merchandise to charities. Good360 has been consistently ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the top 10 most efficient charities, and ranked as the 33rd largest charity in the United States. Good360 is "the largest product donation marketplace in the world. We help companies take excess inventory and then distribute that excess inventory to 37,000 vetted charities around this country."

In September 2014, Fiorina led an effort by Good360 to get American corporations "to help combat the Ebola virus in West Africa – by donating specific items". She left the organization when she declared her presidential candidacy in 2015.

Fiorina served as Fund Chair of One Woman Initiative (OWI), a partnership between the private sector and government agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States Department of State (DoS). OWI describes itself as "An International Women's Empowerment Fund" that seeks to "support existing initiatives in Muslim majority countries and countries with large Muslim populations" and "focus on key empowerment issues including entrepreneurship, political leadership, and the rule of law". OWI said it would raise funds in order to give grants to achieve these objectives, with contributions managed through a separate section 501(c)(3) designated organization.

In June 2009, USAID announced that OWI grants totaling over US$500,000 had been made to grassroots organizations in Azerbaijan, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

On February 14, 2013, Opportunity International announced a partnership with Fiorina and OWI to provide financial resources, education and training to two million women living in poverty. Fiorina was referred to as Global Ambassador to Opportunity International. On May 4, 2015, Opportunity International announced that Fiorina was resigning from the Board after the announcement of her presidential candidacy.

Fiorina has never held public office, but said that her status as an outsider is a positive attribute; in her opinion, professional politicians have failed to deliver to the American people. In a 2015 interview with Fox News, she stated that "82% of the American people now think we need people from outside the professional political class to serve in public office."

In 2006, Fiorina worked as an advisor for Republican senator John McCain's presidential campaign. The New York Times noted that while she did not want to run, she was an executive who could possibly become a candidate for president. On March 7, 2008, Fiorina was named fundraising chair for the Republican National Committee's "Victory" initiative. She was reportedly a "point person" for the McCain campaign on issues related to business and economic affairs. Fiorina's severance package from Hewlett-Packard in 2005 was viewed by some as a political liability during the campaign. Referring to the McCain campaign, Newsweek described Fiorina as "the most prominent surrogate on economics issues in any of the major campaigns."

The day McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, she defended the selection of Palin as McCain's running mate and said that Palin was being subjected to sexist attacks, a charge she repeated a few days later in response to one of the Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin.

When asked during a radio interview on September 15, 2008, whether she thought Palin had the experience to run a major company like Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina answered "No, I don't. But that's not what she's running for. Running a corporation is a different set of things." When questioned about her answer, she answered, "I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation." Fiorina further said that none of the candidates on either ticket had the experience to run a major corporation. After media coverage of Fiorina's comments, she "disappeared from public view" and planned television appearances were cancelled, although she continued to chair the party's fundraising committee. Responding to Barack Obama's victory over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Fiorina sought to attract more women to the Republican camp by praising Clinton's effort.

In early 2008, Fiorina was referred to in media sources as a potential vice presidential candidate, In discussing the possibility of Fiorina becoming McCain's running mate, political analyst Stuart Rothenberg pointed out her potential downside, stating that she "is rather easy to sketch out" because she would "become a talking point for Democrats" who would focus on Fiorina's generous severance package from when she had left HP and her management style. Rothenberg concluded that Fiorina was "like a dream come true" for Democratic opposition researchers.

When she first entered politics as a Senate candidate in November 2009, Carly Fiorina was "considered to be a moderate Republican with little history on social issues". Her positions changed during her run for Senate and her run for president in 2016. In 2017, she described herself as conservative. FiveThirtyEight, a non-partisan organization which analyzes candidates' positions and conducts polling, considered Fiorina to be within the moderate and establishment wings of the GOP.

In 2020, Fiorina endorsed Joe Biden's presidential campaign due to her disapproval of President Donald Trump.

Fiorina is anti-abortion. She expressed support for legislation to ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization, with an exception for cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother. In 2010, she said that Roe v. Wade was settled law, but later reversed that position. Fiorina supported overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, allowing states to set their own abortion policies. She does support embryonic stem-cell research if the embryos were not created for that purpose.

In a February 2015 speech, Fiorina acknowledged the scientific consensus that climate change is real and caused by human activity, but expressed skepticism that government can affect the issue, and has "implied that targeting the coal industry will not solve the problem".

Fiorina said in May 2015 that "drug addiction shouldn't be criminalized" and cited "decriminalizing drug addiction and drug use" as an example of a successful reform. Fiorina opposes the legalization of marijuana, but says that she believes in states' rights, and that as president she will not enforce the federal ban on marijuana in Colorado, where voters have legalized marijuana as a matter of state law.

Fiorina (then Cara Carleton Sneed) married Todd Bartlem, a Stanford classmate, in June 1977. They divorced in 1984.

In 1981, she was introduced to AT&T executive Frank Fiorina, who told her on their third date that she would one day be running the company. She married him in 1985; it was the second marriage for both. Fiorina has said that they wanted to have children together but "that wasn't God's plan". Frank Fiorina took early retirement from AT&T in 1998 at age 48 to travel with and support his wife in her career.