People in the news

Meg Whitman

Former California gubernatorial nominee

(David McNew/
Getty Images)

Why She Matters

Known for her friendly face and leadership skills, former eBay Chief Executive Whitman quit retirement in search of a new job. She really had only one job in mind: governor of California. After pouring more than $150 million of her personal fortune into the race, she lost to state Attorney General Jerry Brown (D).

Whitman joined the race to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who was term-limited, in February 2009. Her vast wealth, which is valued at $1.3 billion according to Forbes, put her in the comfortable position of being able to easily outspend the competition.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: eBay, CEO (1998 to 2008); Hasbro Inc, Head of global marketing and management (1997 to 1998); Florists' Transworld Delivery, President and CEO (1995 to 1997)
Birthday: Aug. 4, 1956
Hometown: Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Alma Mater: Princeton University, B.A. (economics), 1977; Harvard University, MBA, 1979
Spouse: Griffith R. Harsh IV
Web site

Path To Power

Whitman isn't cut from the same cloth as other Silicon Valley billionaires as she never grew up a tech-obsessed genius like Microsoft creator Bill Gates or Apple CEO Steve Jobs. But she used her likability and intelligence to climb the corporate ladder.

Born in Oyster Bay, N.Y., Whitman learned business from her father and life skills from her mother. At age six she joined a three-month camping trip from New York to Alaska with her mother, two siblings and a family friend that also had five children. When the children began to squabble, Whitman's mother had the kids run outside as the camper they drove slowly followed. Truckers who saw the sight often stopped to ensure that everything was copasetic. "You could always hear the hiss of the air brakes," said Whitman. "We finally put up a sign on the back of the camper that said, 'We're O.K.'"

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Whitman graduated high school in three years before moving to Princeton University. After graduating with an economics degree, Whitman attended Harvard University for her MBA. She worked a quick stint at Proctor & Gamble before Mitt Romney hired her as a consultant for Bain & Co. She stayedat Bain for eight years, working closely with Romney, who would go on to become Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate.

After Whitman left Bain she jumped around from vice president of marketing at Disney to president of Stride Rite, where she turned around the struggling Keds shoe brand. In 1995, Whitman got her first CEO position at Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD) - the cooperative of flower dealers. Fruitlessly, she struggled to create market growth by combining the loose federation of florists into one unified organization.

She soon moved to Hasbro Inc. to amuse herself in the toy business. There, she headed the global marketing and management of the Mr. Potato Head brand and Playskool.

EBay

In 1998, Whitman got a call from the niche auction house Web site eBay asking her to join as its CEO. When Whitman first heard the offer, she declined. But after a trip to San Jose, Calif., to see the eBay offices, she saw how addicted some of the customers were to the site and changed her mind. ''I thought something was very right here,'' Whitman said. ''They had touched a consumer nerve.''

EBay was set to go public in September 1998, and Whitman's job was to handle the offering. Prior to the initial public offering, eBay was valued at $700 million dollars. Less than 10 months later, the company had a market capitalization of over $22 billion with a rise of over 1,000% in its stock price while Whitman had become a billionaire and a celebrity. "That's what I hate," Whitman said, responding to the New York Times in 1999 about her celebrity status. "I even have the furniture man noticing me."

Whitman didn't necessarily understand the ins-and-outs of eBay's technology. As CEO, she worried more about developing corporate structure, cutting costs and capitalizing on the auction fees eBay earns for every piece sold. She pushed for the purchase of PayPal, which turned out to be a very savvy move. Whitman also guided eBay through the tumultuous downturn experienced by Silicon Valley companies in 2000 and 2001 when the tech-bubble burst.

Skype

In early 2005, eBay's year-to-year revenue growth dipped below 50 percent for the first time. Investors feared this was the end of eBay's incredible growth. Whitman began searching for another steady revenue stream and to diversify the auction house's holdings. She threw a Hail Mary, and purchased free, online telephone company Skype for nearly $2.6 billion. EBay argued this would be a way for customers looking for items on eBay to speak to the seller, thus creating a more harmonious marketplace. Investors didn't agree.

EBay has never been able to figure out how to monetize Skype, and in 2007 eBay had to write-down by $1.4 billion its purchase of Skype. Whitman has always admitted when she makes a mistake, and she has been quick to move past the fumble.

2010 Gubernatorial Race

Whitman faced a crowded field for the open gubernatorial seat in 2010. On the GOP side were Steve Poizner , the state insurance commissioner and founder of SnapTrack, which put GPS technology into cell-phones, and ex-Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.), a moderate former Silicon Valley lawmaker.

The Democratic nominee was California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

The Issues

After ten years of service at the online auction house eBay, Whitman chose to step down as chief executive in January 2008 and was succeeded by John Donahoe. Speculation began shortly afterwards on whether she would seek public office.

Instead, Whitman worked as a fundraiser for her old boss and friend Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential race, and then supported Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)when he garnered the GOP nod. But after the Republicans failed to win the presidency, Whitman turned her attention to California, a state where she has lived and worked in for the past ten years and that was experiencing a major budget crisis.

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"California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history -- a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses and an exploding state budget deficit," said Whitman in a statement announcing her gubernatorial exploratory campaign in February 2009, before the budget deal was struck. "California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail."

Fiscal Conservative and Social Moderate

Whitman is fiscally conservative and socially moderate. She opposed increasing taxes in order to help decrease California's $42 billion deficit. Like Schwarzenegger, Whitman wants to roll back state regulation to create economic growth. She also wants to increase teacher salaries and cut some corporate income taxes.

"This is something that I've done before," said Whitman. "I think maybe it is about time for a governor who has created jobs, who's managed a budget, who's led and inspired large organizations, who listens well, and who can drive an agenda."

On social issues, she supported Proposition 8, the controversial measure that banned gay marriage in California, but she supports civil unions and thinks gay couples should be allowed to adopt. In referencing her support for Prop. 8, Whitman said it was a "matter of personal conscience and my faith."

She also supports the right for women to choose when it comes to abortion.

Voting Record

In September 2009, Whitman's gubernatorial campaign hit a snag when the Sacramento Bee reported that the former eBay CEO registered in San Mateo County in 2002, but failed to vote on numerous occasions from 2002 to 2007. The paper also found little evidence that Whitman consistently voted throughout her adult life. In 2007, as Whitman prepared to leave eBay, she did register as a Republican. "I failed to register and vote on numerous occasions throughout my life," said Whitman in a statement. "That is simply wrong, and I have taken responsibility for my mistake. California needs leaders who are accountable for their actions."

But her opponents took the opportunity to call on Whitman to step away from the 2010 race. "In the history of America, no one has been elected governor of a state with Meg Whitman's 25-year history of no-show voting," said Jarrod Agen, communications director for Steve Poizner, one of Whitman's opponents in the GOP primary.

Immigration

Whitman believes the federal government should "complete" the construction of the border fence, and send more resources to the U.S.-Mexico border; if it fails to pass comprehensive immigration reform, she would deploy the California National Guard. Whitman also believes in an "economic fence" in which the federal government and California would implement an "enhanced e-verification system" for employers to more easily verify the immigration status of their applicants.

Whitman would also increase inspections of work sites suspected of employing illegal immigrants in law-enforcement actions she said would be similar to "drug-enforcement raids" in which repeated actions would be punished by permanent suspension of a business' license.

Whitman is opposed to bilingual education and would work with California's attorney general to sue the federal government to recoup costs associated with California's illegal immigrant prison population.

But Whitman's tough immigration stance was threatened late in the 2010 campaign when charges emerged that she had knowingly employed an undocumented housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, for ten years.

Santillian and her attorney, Gloria Allred, claimed that Whitman discovered her illegal status in 2003 and ignored it. But Whitman denied such claims and said that when Santillian volunteered the information in 2009, she was promptly fired.

Whitman's campaign provided a California driver's license and Social Security card submitted by Santillian when she was hired by Whitman in 2000.

The Network

A former employee and longtime friend of Mitt Romney, Whitman helped run his fundraising efforts when the former governor of Massachusetts was a Republican presidential candidate. She also participated in 2008 presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's fundraising efforts.

Campaign Contributions

Whitman has donated more than $275,000 since 1999. The majority of the money has gone to national Republican committees, political action committees supporting Republican causes and the eBay political fund. She has donated to a few Democratic campaigns, including $1,000 to Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) in 1999 and $2,000 to Rep. Mike Honda (Calif.) in 2002.

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