Born On : September 6, 1954 In Austin, Texas
Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (born Cara Carleton Sneed; September 6, 1954 in Austin, Texas) is an American businesswoman, best known as former CEO (1999–2005) and Chairman of the Board (2000–2005) of Hewlett-Packard (HP).
Corporate career
Early career (pre-1978)
- Worked as a receptionist at a small real-estate firm
Taught English in Italy..
AT&T (1980-1995)
Fiorina joined AT&T in 1980 as a management trainee and rose to become a Vice President.
Lucent Technologies (1995-1999)
Spun off Lucent Technologies from AT&T. Rose to become President of Lucent's global service provider business.
Hewlett-Packard Company (1999-2005)
Joined Hewlett-Packard Company on July 19, 1999 as CEO, succeeding Lewis Platt.
Fiorina's tenure at HP was fraught with controversy. Her lack of popularity at HP was amplified by many of her decisions, which some thought to be provocative. HP had generally avoided layoffs during many years of following The HP Way, immortalized in the book of the same name by David Packard. During a business downturn in 2001, Fiorina announced 7,000 layoffs, the company's largest to date.
Fiorina also approved the lease of two new Gulfstream jets and proposed that HP pay to move her yacht from the East to the West Coast. (The company declined to do so.) Her business travel included interactions with Hollywood entertainers and politicians. Some believed that these trips were focused more on furthering Fiorina's own political career than the interests of shareholders and of HP. Her actions prompted the San Jose Mercury News, one of the prominent newspapers in the U.S. covering Silicon Valley, to speculate that she might run for governor of California or possibly the Senate, as a Republican candidate after her career at HP was over. Fiorina never denied such rumors. According to family members of husband Frank Fiorina, as of 2005 she still had hopes of landing a high-level government appointment in a Republican administration, most likely that of George W. Bush.
Throughout her career at HP, Fiorina made many speeches at tradeshows, meetings, and conferences. She is often cited for a statement made on January 14, 2004, when she and other technology company leaders met with Congressional members and the Bush administration to lobby them not to impose new trade restrictions aimed at keeping U.S. jobs from moving overseas. In that meeting, Fiorina said: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore. We all have to compete for jobs." While her statement could be viewed as a blunt description of the facts of the time, Fiorina left many people with the impression that she was condescending and elitist. Despite her efforts to lessen criticism by publishing a clarifying op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal (Source: ) one month later, Fiorina's statement left much bitterness amongst American workers.
She was listed by Fortune magazine as the most powerful woman in business for six years in a row until 2004, when the honor went to eBay CEO Meg Whitman. As of 2005 she is listed as the 10th most powerful woman in the world.
Ousted from HP
In 2002, Fiorina pushed through a controversial merger with rival company Compaq. The promised benefits failed to immediately materialize, and many analysts claim that the move diluted the value of HP's otherwise profitable imaging and printer division. HP's combined PC business was only number one for a short while before Dell Computer Corp (now Dell, Inc.) regained the top spot. HP's services have lost market share to IBM since, while its lucrative printer division was being threatened by Dell and Canon. Since the merger, quarterly results have been inconsistent, which led to several sharp sell-offs in the shares. The company's stock price in 2005 was off two thirds from its high in 2000. There has also been an exodus of top managerial talent from HP, mostly from the Compaq side, with the departures of Michael Capellas, Jeff Clarke, Mary McDowell, and the forced resignation of Peter Blackmore.
Furthermore, her background in business--whereas former CEOs of HP have been engineers--occasionally clashed with the engineering focused company.
On 9 February 2005, Carly Fiorina was ousted as chairman and chief executive officer of HP. The Board of Directors had previously threatened to reduce her responsibilities.
"While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said in a statement. "HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future."
Under Hewlett-Packard's severance agreement, Carly Fiorina received US$14 million in cash, which was 2.5 times her base salary and target bonus. HP also paid her US$5.88 million under its 2003-2004 long-term performance cash program, and US$1.5 million, which was the pro-rated amount of her awards under the 2004-2005 program. Her total severance package was estimated to total US$42 million. (Source: , 14 February 2005)
Hewlett-Packard's stock jumped 7% on news of her departure. Since her departure and the appointment of her successor Mark Hurd, HP stock has risen significantly and prospects for the company have improved.
In March 2005, it was reported that Fiorina was being considered for appointment as the next President of the World Bank. However, President George W. Bush eventually nominated Paul Wolfowitz for the position. (Wolfowitz was confirmed by World Bank's executive board on March 31, 2005.)
In a commencement address at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on May 7, 2005, Fiorina said: "The worst thing I could have imagined happened. I lost my job in the most public way possible, and the press had a field day with it all over the world. And guess what? I'm still here. I am at peace and my soul is intact. I could have given it away and the story would be different."
Fiorina holds positions on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. Mrs. Fiorina is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School.
In early September 2005, Fiorina was named a director at Revolution Health Group, a venture formed by Steve Case, the former chairman of AOL Time Warner. In October 2005, it was announced that Fiorina would be joining the board of a Virginia-based computer security company, Cybertrust, which is among the largest information security firms in the world.
On March 8, 2006, two large institutional investors filed suit against Hewlett-Packard for violating its own severance cap when it doled out a multimillion-dollar payment to Fiorina as part of her termination agreement .
Resurface
Since Fiorina's departure from HP, HP stock has approximately doubled in value and employee confidence is back in force under the direction of Mark Hurd. In 2006, as part of what some see as a de-merger process, many of the original Compaq services have been outsourced. In her absence from HP, Fiorina has kept a relatively low profile.
However, Fiorina has recently resurfaced and is again making headlines. She serves on the board of directors for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC). Various fabless high-tech companies such as ATI, Broadcom, Marvell, NVIDIA, and VIA are customers of TSMC.
“Sound corporate governance is rooted in a strong board of directors and we believe Ms. Fiorina’s wealth of experience in leading world-class companies will bring unique value to the board,” said Morris Chang, TSMC chairman in a statement.
TSMC already has three independent board members: former British Telecom CEO Sir Peter Bonfield, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Lester Thurow, and former Acer Group Chairman Stan Shih. Fiorina is the fourth independent board member and serves on the audit and compensation committees.
Morris Chang met Ms. Fiorina in 1999 and both serve as trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On 9 October 2006, Fiorina released a book, Tough Choices: A Memoir, about her career and her views on such issues as what constitutes a leader, how women can thrive in business and the role technology will continue to play in reshaping our world.
In a 10 October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Fiorina contended that her early leadership brought the company back from 9 quarters of missed expectations. Her assertion was that her leadership was strong throughout, and that the Compaq merger was well conceived, but misunderstood by the board.
Education
- High school diploma, Charles E. Jordan Senior High School, Durham, North Carolina
BA double major in medieval history and philosophy, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1976
After Stanford, at her father's urging, she attended law school at University of California, Los Angeles but dropped out after one semester
MBA in marketing, Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park, 1980
MS in management, MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellows program, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989
Personal life