Alumni Spotlight: Carly Fiorina, Robert H. Smith School MBA ‘80
Unless you live under a rock, you know that Election Season is in full swing. We’re pretty far down the line at this point — there’s only five Presidential candidates left standing — but if you think back to a few months ago, there was once a whole plethora of candidates duking it out in televised debates. One of those candidates was Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and alumni of the Robert H. Smith School of Business.Fiorina, a 1980 MBA graduate from the Smith School, announced her bid for the Republican party nomination on May 4, 2015. She eventually dropped out in February 2016 after several months on the campaign trail.
“This campaign was always about citizenship — taking back our country from a political class that only serves the big, the powerful, the wealthy, and the well connected,” Firiona said in a release announcing the suspension of her campaign. “Election after election, the same empty promises are made and the same poll-tested stump speeches are given, but nothing changes. I’ve said throughout this campaign that I will not sit down and be quiet. I’m not going to start now.”
Fiorina was born in Austin, Texas. She and her family frequently moved during her childhood. Her father was dean of Duke University School of Law, Deputy U.S. Attorney General, and judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Her mother was an abstract painter. She attended five different high schools, including one in Ghana, before graduating from Charles E. Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina. As a child, Fiorina aspired to be a classical pianist.
She received a B.A. in philosophy and medieval history from Stanford University in 1976 before attending the UCLA School of Law and dropping out after one semester. Fiorina didn’t pursue a business degree until completing her MBA at the Smith School in 1980. Fiorinia later obtained a Master of Science in Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1989.
Fiorina’s business career began at AT&T in 1980 as a management trainee. She successfully climbed the corporate ladder, becoming the company’s first female executive officer. In 1995, she led AT&T’s equipment and technology spinoff, Lucent Technologies. In 1998, Fortune magazine named Fiorina “The Most Powerful Woman in American Business.”
She then left Lucent to join HP as the company’s CEO, a position she would hold until 2005. At HP, she became the first woman to lead a Top 20 company, as ranked by Fortune. As CEO, she was at the helm of striking what was then the largest technology sector merger in history where HP acquired competitor Compaq, making HP the world’s largest seller of personal computers.
However, the success would be short-lived — HP subsequently experienced massive waves of layoffs, until the number of folks who lost their job became roughly the same number as the pre-merger number of employees at HP and Compaq combined. On February 9, 2005, the HP board of directors forced Fiorina to resign as CEO and chair.
Following her time at HP, Fiorina entered the realm of politics, becoming an adviser to 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 has remained involved at the Smith School. She donated $100,000 to the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship in 2007 and served as the keynote speaker during the school’s spring commencement in 2006.
According to a press release on the Smith School website, Fiorina’s speech described her journey from the Smith School to AT&T to HP, saying, “Leadership is about making a positive difference. Leadership is about changing the order of things.” She also paid tribute to former dean Rudy Lamone during a career achievement event in 2012.
Fiorina was also featured in the Smith Business magazine in 2014, where she discussed the need for more women in senior leadership roles.
“Human potential is the only limitless resource we have,” she said in the fall 2014 issue of the magazine. “If we do not fully tap human potential, then we do not solve our problems. And women are the most underutilized resource in the world.”
About the Author
Max Pulcini
Max Pulcini is a Philadelphia-based writer and reporter. He has an affinity for Philly sports teams, Super Smash Bros. and cured meats and cheeses. Max has written for Philadelphia-based publications such as Spirit News, Philadelphia City Paper, and Billy Penn, as well as national news outlets like The Daily Beast.
