While she is perhaps best known as the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), what is not as well known is Carly worked her way through undergraduate and graduate school. A self-made woman, she started her business career as a secretary and went on to become the first, and to date, the only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company.
Carly served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) from 1999 to 2005, leading the reinvention of the legendary company, successfully steering it through the dot-com bust and the worst technology recession in 25 years. During her tenure, HP’s revenues doubled, from $44 billion to $88 billion, with improved profitability in every product category. Today, HP is the largest technology company in the world.
She proved her leadership in tough times. Her pursuit of the controversial merger with Compaq Computer is now acknowledged to be the most successful merger in high-tech history and positioned HP to become the first $100 billion information technology company, creating market leadership positions for the company in every one of its product lines.
Carly’s uncommon record of hard work and success includes more than 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she led the largest-of-its-time IPO of Lucent and became President of its largest business.
Today, Carly is one of the most recognized business leaders in the world and an opinion leader who chairs the Board of the Technology Policy Institute, served on the Board of Business Executives for National Security, is a Global Envoy for Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG organization and serves as vice chair of the Initiative for Global Development. She was also a member of the Defense Business Board, and recently served on the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State.
As the Chairman of the Fiorina Foundation, chair of The One Woman Initiative - A Fund for Women’s Empowerment and a founding partner with The African Leadership Academy, Carly believes in giving back. She is also a board member of Freedom House, Vital Voices, the National Symphony Orchestra and Ford’s Theatre and serves as a trustee for MIT.
She helped put herself through school, doing the books at a local hair salon while she earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford and taught undergraduates in order to pay for an MBA from the University of Maryland. Her Masters of Science in Business from MIT was the result of years of hard work at AT&T - they thought enough about her promising future to send her there.
She and her husband Frank live in Los Altos Hills, CA, with their two Yorkshire Terriers, Max and Snickers. They have a daughter and two granddaughters. Another daughter is recently deceased.
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