Facts about Carly Fiorina

Cara Carleton “Carly” Fiorina is an American businesswoman and politician best known for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett Packard. As CEO of HP from 1999 to 2005, Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune Top 20 company. She was born Cara Carleton Sneed on September 6th, 1954, in Austin, Texas to Madelon Montross and Joseph Tyree Sneed III.

Carly Fiorina is first person to head HP who came from outside the company.

Carly married Todd Bartlem in 1977 and they were married until 1984.

Carly Fiorina is the first female officer at AT&T. By the age of 40, she was leading AT&T’s North American operations.

In 1985 Carly married Frank Fiorina, which was a second marriage for both. He was an AT&T executive.

Carly her career as a secretary in a real estate office.

During college Carly Fiorina worked at Hewlett-Packard. She eventually came back and ran the company as its CEO.

Carly Fiorina has never held elected public office.

When Carly Fiorina took the position of CEO at Hewlett-Packard in 1999 she was the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

She ran for the U.S. Senate in California against incumbent Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010 but lost by ten points.

In 2005 Carly Fiorina was forced to resign from Hewlett-Packard because the company merged with Compaq. Her severance from the company was $21.4 million. She also received $21.1 million in stock options.

At Stanford University Fiorina studied philosophy and medieval history.

Carly Fiorina was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, and a result became an advocate for clearer screening. She is now considered a breast cancer survivor.

Carly attended UCLA Law School but did not finish, upsetting her father, a former deputy Attorney General and federal judge.

While in treatment for breast cancer, Carly’s youngest daughter Lori passed away.

Fiorina was forced out as CEO of HP in 2005 when the board decided she had not done enough to stop HP’s falling stock price — which dropped 50% during her tenure.

In 2009 Carly Fiorina decided to run for the 2010 Senate and won the primary but lost the general.

At the time of her 2010 Senate race, financial disclosures showed Fiorina was worth between $30 million and $120 million.

Carly Fiorina announced she would run for the 2016 presidential campaign in 2015. She later suspended her campaign and joined Ted Cruz as his running mate. When he lost her bid for vice-president ended as well.

Carly Fiorina worked as an economic adviser to John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign.

While Carly Fiorina has admitted she believes that global warming is an issue, she has doubted government can affect it.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 at the age of 54.

Despite her belief that marijuana shouldn’t be legalized she has said that as president she would allow states to have final say and that she would not enforce federal law.

After her first marriage ended in divorce, she married her fellow AT&T executive Frank Fiorina in 1985.

Carly and her husband Frank Fiorina are worth an estimated $59 million. They live in Mason Neck, Virginia on an estate worth $6.6 million overlooking the Potomac River.

Fiorina’s stepdaughter Lori Ann died in 2009 at age 35 after battling alcohol and prescription drug abuse.

While Carly said she wanted to have children, she wasn’t able and was step-mother to Frank’s two daughters Lori and Traci, until Lori passed away in 2009.

Her birth name Cara Carleton Sneed comes from a family tradition of naming at least one child Carleton in honor of male relatives sharing the name who died in the Civil War.

Carly Fiorina’s drug stance is to support treatment for addiction rather than focus on drug use as a criminal activity, due to the loss of her daughter Lori at 35 to addiction issues.

She published her New York Times best-selling memoir “Tough Choices” in 2006, and followed it up with a second book “Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey” in 2015.

Carly Fiorina has led a number of non-profits around the world. She has a strong belief in helping and serving others.

Fiorina founded the Unlocking Potential Project, a political action committee to engage Republican women in politics and close the gender gap for the GOP.

If Carly Fiorina had successfully run for U.S. President she would have been the first female U.S. President in history.