When Fiorina engaged in the proxy fight to force the Compaq merger, "the story was whether Carly would succeed," said Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives. "At the exact same time, the Enron story broke. And instead of being about Ken Lay, it was about Enron."
At an HP board meeting in mid-January, directors expressed disappointment in Fiorina's performance and discussed whether they should assign some of her duties to someone else. Earlier this week, one of Fiorina's allies on the board abruptly quit -- unusual in mid-term.
Carleton S. "Carly" Fiorina became Hewlett-Packard CEO in 1999.
(Mike Blake -- Reuters)
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_____Live Discussion_____
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11 a.m. ET: Author George Anders will be online to discuss Carly Fiorina's tenure at Hewlett-Packard
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Fiorina Biographical Data
From
Associated Press
at 1:57 PM
NAME: Cara Carleton Sneed Fiorina.
BIRTHDATE: Sept. 6, 1954.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in medieval history and philosophy, Stanford University, 1976; master's in business administration degree, University of Maryland, 1980; master's of science degree in management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989.
EXPERIENCE: Saleswoman, marketing posts and other executive positions, including head of North American network systems, at AT&T Corp., 1980-1996. Helped lead spinoff of equipment/research division into Lucent Technologies Inc. in 1996. President, Lucent's global service provider business, 1998-1999. Named chief executive and president of Hewlett-Packard Co. in 1999 and given the title of chairwoman in 2000. She resigned from the company Feb. 9, 2005, citing differences with the board over executing its strategy.
FAMILY: Husband, Frank Fiorina; two stepdaughters.
QUOTE: "Oh, I'm sure I've made my share of (mistakes). I don't think I've made more than my fair share of them, although I think more has been made of the ones that I've made," from an October 2001 interview with The Associated Press.
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Fiorina said in a written statement yesterday that Hewlett-Packard is a great company and she wishes it much success.
"While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," she said.
Hewlett-Packard directors appointed Robert P. Wayman, 59, chief financial officer and a protege of Fiorina's predecessor, as interim chief executive. Patricia C. Dunn, a board member since 1998, will become non-executive chairman. She is the former chairman of Barclays Global Investors, an investment firm.
Dunn said in a conference call with financial analysts that the board had been debating a change at the top for some time. She praised Fiorina's work but said it was time for someone with a different management style and vision.
"Carly was brought in to catalyze a transformation of HP. She did that in a remarkable fashion," Dunn said. "Looking forward, we think the job is very reliant on hands-on execution, and we thought a new set of capabilities was called for."
Investors on Wall Street initially reacted positively to the news, pushing HP shares up 7 percent, to $21.53.
When she was lured away in 1999 from Lucent Technologies, Fiorina was known as much for her pizzazz as her business expertise.
"The fact is, Carly was looked upon very favorably in those days, when HP was an inbred, super-collegial . . . type of organization," said Brian M. Sullivan, chief executive and chairman of Christian & Timbers, a search firm that recruited Fiorina for Hewlett-Packard. "They were going outside and wanted to make a statement because they are a cutting-edge kind of employer."
