J. Michael Pearson is a Canadian American pharmaceutical company executive, who was the chairman and CEO of the publicly traded Laval-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, until he was replaced in April 2016 by Joseph C. Papa. On April 27, 2016 Pearson, Bill Ackman and Howard Schiller appeared before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging to answer concerns about the repercussions for patients and the health care system faced with Valeant's business model.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International:
Before taking over as Valeant CEO in 2008, Pearson worked for them as outside consultant in 2007. In 2008, Pearson began implementing his strategy by selling off portions of Valeant's European business to Meda AB, In 2010, Valeant and the Canadian-headquartered company Biovail agreed to merge, with the resulting company being called Valeant and being headquartered in Ontario Pearson was named CEO of the new company and then, in March 2011, he was appointed chairman of the board. The Biovail merger, by headquartering the company in Canada, allowed the company to reduce its tax rate to approximately 5% Later, Valeant would be called upon to testify before Congress, along with Burger King, about how its tax inversion potentially gave it a competitive advantage over American companies. A New York Times article credits Pearson's "tough tactics" for the financial success of the "fast-growing" Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. The article also highlights the criticism that Valeant Pharmaceuticals controversial strategy has attracted from patients finding themselves unable to afford drugs after price hikes by Valeant. This pricing controversy was originally raised when Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings sent a letter to Valeant seeking justification for huge price increases it took on two life-saving drugs, Nitropress and Isuprel. The company had raised the price of Isuprel by almost six times and the price of Nitropress by over three times. Shortly after, Democratic members of Congress attempted to subpoena Valeant for this information. As CEO, Pearson's business strategy was to eliminate "risky and inefficient" Research and Development to the equivalent of "only 3 percent of its sales" whereas "traditional big drug companies spend 15 to 20 percent of sales on research and development". Instead he acquired dozens of companies with existing drugs and saved money by laying off their employees. This model worked and Valeant's stock price rose by over 1000%. By 2013, under Pearson's tenure, Valeant was the largest pharmaceutical company in Canada. By 2015 Pearson had "nearly $3USD billion in stock and options" in Valeant, with "the potential to own hundreds of millions of dollars more." Since Pearson became CEO Valeant shares "have returned more than 2,300 per cent" making Valeant the "most valuable" and the best performer on the Toronto Stock Exchange. By July 2015 Valeant's market capitalization was $CDN 113-billion which is about $4-billion more than the Royal Bank of Canada. However, by October of that same year, following negative press about its pricing tactics and a particularly negative analyst report from Citron Research, Valeant's stock dropped to approximately $CDN 78-billion.
In a conference call with Valeant investors on October 19, Pearson announced changes in Valeant's business strategy. They will spend "more on research and development and less on acquisitions of smaller drug makers" and there will be "minimal price increases on its products" in 2016.
Pearson was hospitalized on December 25 and was treated for severe pneumonia. Valeant's board created an office of the Chief Executive Officer to immediately take over his duties and a supporting committee to oversee the office of the CEO. The committee includes Robert Ingram, president of ValueAct Capital Mason Morfit and former Valeant CFO Howard Schiller. According to Reuters, following the announcement Valeant shares fell "10.5 percent to $102.14" on the New York Stock Exchange after its stock had already fallen more than 60 percent since August. Industry critics claim that since Valeant has suffered from credibility issues over the pricing controversy and is still not on solid ground, the company needs strong decisive leadership not a "cumbersome" committee.
On February 29, 2016, Pearson returned to the now controversial company. On March 15, shares in the company collapsed by 50 percent following a disastrous earnings call fronted by Pearson. On March 21, 2016 Valeant reported that CEO Pearson would be leaving the company, a decision reported by CNBC that "was not mutual". The company also reported that former Chief Financial Officer Howard Schiller was to blame for "improper conduct" and requested he resign from the board of directors, which Mr. Schiller declined to do. "Circular Firing Squad Emerges" was how Piper Jaffray & Co analysts led by David Amsellem put it.
On April 13, 2016 it was announced that Pearson would be deposed from his position as CEO of Valeant on April 18, 2016. The removal was ordered by the Senate Special Committee on Aging who have been probing the soaring price of prescription drugs. Pearson initially fought the decision though Valeant's board directed him to comply.
Controversies:
Tax rate
Valeant's conversion to a Canadian company via the Valeant/Biovail merger in 2010 allowed the company to reduce its corporate tax rate to approximately 5%. Congress used Burger King and Valeant as examples of companies with tax advantages in a July 2015 investigation of corporate taxation. The investigation primarily focused on the advantage that foreign companies have in acquiring American companies due to their low tax rates and members of Congress suggested that many of the deals by foreign companies, including Valeant, relied upon tax advantages to be completed. During the testimony, Valeant CFO Howard Schiller stated that "Valeant does not take into account tax synergies in either identifying or pricing potential acquisition targets", but articles suggested this was in contrast to previous comments made by Pearson, including a comment made during Valeant's pursuit of Allergan in a hostile takeover attempt when he was quoted as saying "no other potential acquirer of Allergan has the...tax synergies we have".
Pricing
When pharmaceutical pricing tactics became a topic for the press and politicians in 2015, Valeant's price increase history became a major focus, with investigations revealing that the company had taken substantial price increases on many products from 2013 through 2015, including two products that it acquired and then raised the price on substantially. In response to inquiries about these price increases, Valeant's company spokesperson said "Our duty is to our shareholders and to maximize value". This sentiment was later echoed by Pearson, who said "My primary responsibility is to Valeant shareholders. We can do anything we want to do".
Pearson agreed to appear before a Senate committee investigating the matter in April 2016.
Accounting tactics:
Many have accused Pearson's strategy at Valeant of being a roll-up dependent on acquisitions and aggressive accounting tactics while others claim it is not. As Valeant's debt reached roughly $30 billion by 2016 concerns continued to be raised about accounting practices. Notable critics of Valeant and its accounting practices include Jim Chanos, who predicted the fall of Enron, Herb Greenberg, John Hempton, Charlie Munger, Jim Grant, AZ Value Investing and Citron Research. Notable defenders of Valeant against these allegations include activist investors Bill Ackman and Jeffrey Ubben. Valeant defended itself against these allegations in an SEC filing in October 2015.
Pearson was the highest paid CEO in Canada in 2015, receiving US$182.9 million during a period when Valeant's share price fell by 30%.
Born : 15 November 1955 (age 60)
Nationality : Indian
Ethnicity : Malayali
Occupatio : Founder & MD of Lulu Hypermarket
Net worth : Increase US$5 billion (2016)
Religion : Islam
Spouse(s) : Shabira Yusuff Ali
Awards : Padma Shri (2008)
Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (2005)
Commander of the Syriac Orthodox Church
Yusuff Ali M.A. is an Indian businessman from Nattika in Thrissur district of Kerala. He is the Managing Director of Abu Dhabi-headquartered EMKE LuLu Group of companies that owns the Lulu Hypermarket chain in Middle East. With an annual turnover of US $5.5 billion globally, LuLu Group International employs the largest number of Indians outside India. According to the recent Forbes Listing, Yusuff Ali is currently the 24th wealthiest Indian and the 737th richest in the world, with a personal wealth of $4.3 billion. He had acquired 4.99 per cent shares of the 93-year-old Thrissur-based Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) and has increased his stake in the Kerala-based Federal Bank to 4.47 per cent. He was in the news recently for the purchase of Scotland Yard Building.
EMKE Group (LuLu Group International):
The EMKE Group alias LuLu Group International commenced its operations as a family business venture. After joining the business, Yusuff Ali diversified the business to include import and distribution of frozen products from Europe and the US. The products were available not only in Abu Dhabi but also in the interiors of the Emirates too. The business was soon expanded to include both food & non-food categories. The group also started cold storages, meat and food processing plants, large-scale import and distribution to hotel groups, catering companies, and shipping services. By the 1980s, the group had a sizeable share of the wholesale and retail food market in the UAE.
The Group headquartered in Abu Dhabi has grown into an international group with operations spread over three continents. EMKE Group’s flagship retail chain of LuLu Hypermarkets and Supermarkets is currently rated as one of the major players in the Middle East retail sector with more than 100 stores in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Arab states. Apart from the hypermarkets, supermarkets and department stores, the group also owns several shopping malls, namely, Khalidiyah Mall, Al Raha Mall, Al Wahda Mall, Mushriff Mall, Madinat Zayed Mall, Mazyad Mall, Ramli Mall, RAK Mall, Al Foah Mall, and Al Khor Mall, spread across the GCC states. LuLu Shopping Mall in Kochi, Kerala was opened on 10 March 2013. It is the group’s first retail venture in India. Another ambitious project in progress is the Riyadh Avenue Mall in Saudi Arabia. The Group has a vast organizational structure of over 35,600 employees, representing 37 different nationalities, out of which more than 28,900 are Indians. Retail business is the mainstay of the Group with operations in major Middle East and African countries like UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Kenya having Retail Sourcing and manufacturing bases located in Far East, India, Africa and Guangzhou in China. Indian operations mainly include Food Processing, Export of Food & Non food products and convention center with bases in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin and Trichur.
Deloitte has ranked the Group as one of the ten fastest growing retailers in the world. Planet Retail UK has also ranked the Group as the No.1 Hypermarket chain in the region
Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao is an Indian businessman and the Executive Chairman of Lanco Infratech, and the brother of Lagadapati Rajagopal. Forbes listed him as the 29th richest Indian with a net worth of $2.3 billion
Biography:
Born in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh in 1966, Madhusudhan Rao completed a BE from V.R Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada, and an ME in design engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He went on to earn another MS degree in industrial engineering from Wayne State University, Detroit, USA.
Subsequently, He also had a brief stint in various aspects of Quality Management at Waggner Corporation in the United States.On his return, Madhusudhan Rao joined the team in building up Lanco Industries Limited near Tirupati, in Andhra Pradesh. He became the Managing Director of the company in 1992. He became the Executive Chairman of Lanco Infratech Limited in 2002. Under his leadership, Lanco Infratech has emerged as one of India's fastest growing business conglomerates. According to Forbes magazine, he stands at No. 29 among the richest persons in India.
Marillyn A. Hewson (born c. 1954) is Chairwoman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin. In 2015, Hewson was named the 20th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Early life:
Hewson was born in Junction City, Kansas. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and her Master of Arts degree in economics from the University of Alabama. She also attended the Columbia Business School and Harvard Business School executive development programs.
Career:
Hewson joined Lockheed Martin in 1983. She has held a variety of increasingly responsible executive positions with the company, including President and Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s Electronic Systems business area. On November 9, 2012 she was elected to Lockheed Martin’s Board of Directors. She has been the CEO since January 2013. She also serves on the Board of directors for Sandia National Laboratories since 2010 and DuPont since 2007. Since becoming CEO in 2013, Lockheed's market cap has doubled.
In July 2015, Hewson announced the purchase of Sikorsky Aircraft, the producers of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, giving Lockheed its own helicopter building capability. Hewson has also shifted more company efforts towards building military hardware.
In 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015 she was named by Fortune magazine as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business". In the September 15, 2015 issue of Fortune magazine, Hewson was ranked 4th. She was named the 21st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2014. She rose one spot to the 20th most powerful woman in the world in Forbes' 2015 ranking.
Full Name : Marissa Ann Mayer
Born : 30th- May - 1975
Zodiac Sign : Gemini
Height : 173 CMS (5 Feet 8 Inches)
Birth Place : Wausau, Wisconsin
Country : USA
Education : Wausau West High School Wisconsin, Stanford University California
Occupation : CEO
Industry : Business
Net worth : $300 Million
Childhood
Marissa Mayer was born on May 30, 1975 at Wausau, Wisconsin. Her father was an environmental engineer and her mother was an art teacher. Her dream was to study at the Stanford University. She fulfilled her dream by graduating from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Science in Computer Science. She was an extremely intelligent student and specialized in artificial intelligence at her university. She graduated from Wausau West High School in 1993, where she was outstanding at both math and science.
At school she was selected to attend the National Youth Science Camp, and that too recommended by the Governor of Wisconsin itself. As she had graduated out of a prestigious university like Stanford and was an honor student, she received more than 20 high paying job offers.
Early Career :
But she ignored these high profiles and chose to join a start-up company called Google in 1999. She was only the 20th employee at the company, and was paid far lesser than her credentials as it was just a start-up company. She worked for 13 years at the company. Her contributions have made Google to go from being a small start-up company to become a global super power and the No.1 internet company in the world today.
At Google she worked in the roles of designer, product manager, engineer and executive. She was involved in bringing out the most important products that Google had to offer. She has been involved in almost all the major projects of Google including Google Search, Google Images, Google News, iGoogle, Gmail, Google Maps, etc. In 2009, just 10 years after joining the company, she was made Vice-President of Search Products and User Experience. She has played an important role in taking a start-up like Google and to make it a $30 billion company in 2010.
Career :
But she touched the greatest point in her career, when she joined rival company Yahoo as their CEO and President. The company was losing its search users day by day and it was in a situation where it would have to close out in another year or so. The share price was stagnant at $20 per share. The company was facing huge competition from Google and many companies like Microsoft were trying to buy it out.
As a CEO of Yahoo :
Yahoo was facing its worst period, but Mayer had the perfect plan to get it back to the top. She started creating interest in the employees, changed the whole management and made Yahoo focus on the single goal of creating new products. Within a month, the results were visible.
Career Highlights :
By the end of 2013, the share price of Yahoo has reached a record $40 per share, which no one financial expert could have expected a few months back. As of 2013, Yahoo is the company with the highest profit percentage among the Fortune 500 companies at nearly 75%. It has total revenues of $5 billion, out of which $4 billion are profits. Marissa Mayer has been paid $120 million for her five year term at Yahoo.
As of today, her net worth is in excess of $320 million. She has made it to the list of America’s 50 Most Powerful Women in the World for six years in a row from 2008-2013. She has been named in the Time 100 in 2013, and is considered as one of the most powerful women in the world right now.
Awards :
2011 - Whitney American Art, Centennial Teaching, Forsyth
2009 - Glamour Women of the Year for the Visionary
Mark Fields (born January 24, 1961) is an American businessman and has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company since July 1, 2014. Fields served as chief executive officer of Mazda from 1999 to 2002 during the period when Ford controlled Mazda, and was the chief operating officer for Ford Motor Company. Prior to that, as Ford's President of the Americas, Fields developed "The Way Forward" plan. He succeeded Alan Mulally as the company's President and CEO. Fields is the first Jewish CEO of a Detroit Three automobile manufacturer.
Early life, education, and family:
Fields was born in Brooklyn, New York to Gerald S. Fields, a purchasing manager, and Elinor Fields. Fields is of Romanian Jewish and Russian Jewish descent, and the Fields family original name was Finkelman. Fields grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, where he attended Paramus High School, graduating in 1979. Fields holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Rutgers University and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard; he worked for IBM prior to earning his MBA. He is married to Jane Fields and has two sons, Max and Zach Fields. During his tenure at Mazda, Fields was the first Jewish CEO of a major automobile manufacturer outside of France.
Career in business:
Fields was recruited by Ford in 1989 and moved up the ranks. He ran Ford's Argentina operations at the age of 36. He became the youngest person (at 38) ever to run a major Japanese company when Ford placed him in charge of Mazda Motor Corporation in 1998. In 2002, Fields became chairman of the Premier Automotive Group, Ford's luxury unit which at the time included Lincoln, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo Cars. He returned to the United States to head the Americas division of the company in October 2005. In a December 14, 2006, announcement made by Alan Mulally (Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company), Mark Fields, at 45, was named business unit chief of Ford Motor Company's Americas operations. This is an attempt to make the company leaner and more centrally driven in areas such as product development, purchasing and engineering.
On November 1, 2012, Ford announced the appointment of Fields as its new chief operating officer. He was named the President and CEO of Ford effective July 1, 2014, succeeding Alan Mulally.
Mark Parker (born 21 October 1955 in Poughkeepsie, New York) is the Chief Executive Officer of Nike, Inc., he was named the third CEO of the company in 2006.
Early life:
Mark Parker was born in Poughkeepsie, New York to Bruce Parker and Elizabeth Parker. He earned his bachelor's degree in Political Science at Penn State University in 1977. He is married to Kathy Parker and has three children, Jennifer, Megan, and Matthew. He ran on the Penn State track and cross country teams.
Career at Nike:
Parker joined Nike in 1979 as a footwear designer based in its R&D facility in Exeter, New Hampshire. He became Division Vice President in charge of development in 1987, Corporate Vice President in 1989, General Manager in 1993, and Vice President of Global Footwear in 1998. Prior to becoming vice president of Nike, he served as co-president (with Charlie Denson) of the Nike brand beginning in March 2001. He still participates in shoe design, most notably on the Nike HTM project, creating limited edition footwear alongside Nike designer Tinker Hatfield and creative consultant Hiroshi Fujiwara. He has committed to ensuring that Nike remain environmentally conscious. After 10 years of work, Parker and his team launched the first "Green Shoe" that adheres to the principles of sustainability. He is also responsible for other brands in Nike's portfolio, including Converse Inc. and Hurley International.
While CEO of Nike in 2012, Mark G. Parker earned a total compensation of $15,425,608, which included a base salary of $1,609,615, a cash bonus of $594,190, stocks granted of $3,500,087, options granted of $4,199,250, and non-equity incentive plan compensation listed at $5,522,466. When he receives his promotion his salary will increase by 25%.
In 2015, Mark Parker was named Fortune's Businessperson of the year.
It was announced in June 2015 that Mark Parker is replacing Phil Knight as company chairman of Nike in 2016. Trevor Edwards (president of the Nike brand) will be filling in as CEO.
Limitation on football boots in team China:
Under Parker's leadership, Nike started to limit the brands of football boots in team China. In May 2015, based on the contract with Nike, CFA stipulated that all the players of team China must wear the football boots of the sponsor (Nike). The corporation which wants their spokesmen to wear other brand must pay 10 million RMB to CFA. Thus making China the unique team in which the players can not choose football boots freely in the world. For example, Yang Xu is the spokesman of 361°, but he must wear Nike in national team.
Art collection:
Parker is an avid arts supporter with an extensive ongoing collection of modern, low brow and underground contemporary art, along with many other one-of-a-kind collectibles. In June 7, 2012 pop culture website So Bad So Good showcased "The Unreal Artwork Inside the Office of Nike CEO Mark Parker".Notable artists from Parker's collection include Andy Warhol, Adonna Khare, Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr, Tim Biskup, Eric White, Sebastian Kruger, Charles Krafft, Glennray Tutor, Robert Crumb, and Michael Leavitt. Other notable items include rare movie ephemera such as original props and models from Mars Attacks! (1996), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Back to the Future (1989), and Batman (1989).
Full Name : Mark Jonathan Pincus
Born : 13th- Feb - 1966
Birth Place : Chicago, Illinois
Country : USA
Occupation : CEO, Chairman
Industry : Internet
Mark Pincus is an American entrepreneur in the Internet media and is popularly known as the co-founder of the popular online game-creators Zynga. He is also the founder of Support.com, Tribe Networks and Freeloader, Inc. Pincus retired as CEO from Zynga in July 2013.
Zynga is considered to be one of the topmost online game-creators in the world and is expected to reach sales figures of around $5.5b by 2016.
Early Life:
Born as Mark Jonathan Pincus on February 13, 1966 in Chicago, he was raised in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. His father, Theodore Pincus was a public relations adviser to various CEOs and politicians as well as being a business columnist while his mother, Donna was an architect.
Mark attended the Francis W. Parker School from kindergarten to 12th grade and graduated from there in 1984. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and went on to get an MBA degree from Harvard Business School where he was the co-founder of the Communications Club.
Career:
Before foraying into entrepreneurship, Mark worked in the venture capital and financial services for nearly 6 years and spent another 2 years as a financial analyst for Lazard Freres & Co. after having graduated from Wharton School of Business. He later moved to Hong Kong and served as the VP for Asian Capital Partners for a period of 2 years.
Returning to the United Stated, Mark attended Harvard Business School and graduated in 1993. He used to serve as a summer associate for Bain & Co., in 1992. After graduating from Harvard, Mark took a job as manager of corporate development at AT&T Cable. In 1994, he joined Columbia Capital as a VP where he was responsible for handling investments in the new media and software startups in Washington, D.C for one year.
Mark launched his first startup, Freeloader, Inc., in 1995 which was a web-based push technology and was acquired within the first 7 months for around $38m.
In 1997, Mark launched Supprt.com as Chairman and CEO and swiftly built it into one of the leading service provider for automation software. In 2002, the company was renamed as SupportSoft, Inc.
Tribe.net, an early version social networking site was launched by Mark in 2003 and was supported by various known media outlets. Cisco Systems acquired Tribe.net in 2007.
Mark co-founded Zynga, Inc., in 2007 and served as its CEO till 2013. Zynga was launched as a developer of social games played on the various social networking sites such as Facebook. Zynga currently has over 123 million active users worldwide and is the largest social game network of the world.
Heights:
Mark has various commendable achievements under his belt, from being the founder of Freeloader, Inc., SupportSoft.com and Tribe.net to having co-founded Zynga and helping it become the largest social game network in the world. Within 4 years from its launch, Mark helped grow the company from a small startup to an enormous $1 billion network of social gaming network.
Personal Life:
Mark has lived in various cities across the country such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Denver and Boston as well as living in Hong Kong.
He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Ali Pincus and their three children. Ali Pincus is also the co-founder of the furniture and home accessories website, One Kings Lane.
Awards:
Mark Pincus has been recognized as one of the most successful and innovative entrepreneurs in the IT industry.
He has been named as the ‘CEO of the Year’ in the 2009 The Crunchies technology awards.
In 2010, he was named ‘Founder of the Year’ at The Crunchies technology awards.
Mårten Gustaf Mickos (born November 6, 1962 in Espoo, Finland) is the current CEO of HackerOne, the makers of a security vulnerabilities tracking software, and is the former senior vice president and general manager of the Cloud business for Hewlett-Packard, and former CEO of Eucalyptus Systems. He was also a member of the board of directors of Nokia.
Mickos is a frequent speaker and blogger on topics of leadership, open source business models and cloud computing.
In March 2010, Mårten was appointed CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, the company behind the Eucalyptus software for cloud computing on computer clusters.
From 2009 to 2010 Mickos was the Entrepreneur In Residence of venture capital firm Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures.
Mickos was chief executive officer (CEO) of MySQL AB from January 2001 to February 2008, when Sun Microsystems bought MySQL Inc and MySQL AB. He served as senior vice president of the database group at Sun Microsystems until March 2009.
He has previously been a member of the board of Electrosonic (2009-2012), Mozilla Messaging (2008-2011) and RightScale (2009-2010).
In 2009, Marten participated as an expert witness for the European Commission when they were looking at the Oracle-MySQL merger through antitrust perspectives.
Mårten was a co-founder and CEO of MatchON Sports Ltd. Previously, he was CEO of Sonera subsidiary Intellitel Communications Inc, and has held sales and marketing positions at Solid Information Technology Ltd and other software companies.
Marten Mickos is also an angel investor in Enterprise 2.0 start-up Tradeshift.
Mickos has a master's degree in Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology in Finland.
Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is an American business executive. Whitman is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, as well as the Chairwoman of HP Inc.
A native of Long Island, New York, Whitman is a graduate of Princeton University, New Jersey, and Harvard Business School, Massachusetts. Whitman served as an executive in The Walt Disney Company, where she was Vice President of Strategic Planning throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, Whitman served as an executive for DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro.
Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay, from 1998 to 2008. During Whitman's 10 years with the company, she oversaw its expansion from 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue, to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue. In 2014, Whitman was named 20th in Forbes List of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.
In 2008, Whitman was cited by The New York Times as among the women most likely to become the first female President of the United States.In February 2009, Whitman announced her candidacy for Governor of California, becoming the third woman in a 20-year period to run for the office. Whitman won the Republican primary in June 2010. The fourth wealthiest woman in the state of California with a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2010,[6] she spent more of her own money on the race than any other political candidate spent on a single election in American history,spending $144 million total of her own fortune and $178.5 million, including donors.Whitman was defeated by Jerry Brown in the 2010 California gubernatorial election.
Political positions:
Whitman was a supporter of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2008 and was on his national finance team.She was also listed as finance co-chair of Romney's exploratory committee.After Romney stepped out of the race and endorsed John McCain, Whitman joined McCain's presidential campaign as a national co-chair.McCain mentioned Whitman as a possible Secretary of the Treasury during the second presidential debate in 2008.However, McCain lost the 2008 general election to Barack Obama.
While running for governor, Whitman emphasized three major areas: job creation, reduced state government spending, and reform of the state's K-12 educational system. She argued that it is best to start only a few things and finish them, instead of starting a lot of things and finishing few of them.
During the 2012 Republican primaries, Whitman endorsed Mitt Romney,who praised Whitman.Whitman's name had been mentioned as a possible cabinet member in a Romney administration.However, Romney lost the 2012 general election to Barack Obama.
During the 2016 Republican primaries, Whitman was finance co-chair of Chris Christie's presidential campaign. After Christie withdrew from the race and subsequently endorsed the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, Whitman criticized Christie's endorsement as "an astonishing display of political opportunism" and called on other Christie donors to reject Trump.