LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY
Meg Whitman ’ s illustrious career spans CEO roles at eBay and HP , a gubernatorial run in California , and her recent appointment as the US Ambassador to Kenya
A prominent American business executive and political figure , Meg Whitman is best known for her roles at leading several major corporations , most notably eBay and Hewlett-Packard .
Born on August 4 , 1956 , in Cold Spring Harbor , New York , Whitman attended the Cold Spring Harbor High School before enrolling at Princeton University , where she earned a bachelor ’ s degree in economics . Following this , she obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979 .
Whitman began her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble , following which she joined Bain & Company as a consultant . She then took on executive roles at various firms , including The Walt Disney Company , where she was Senior Vice President of Marketing , and Hasbro , where she oversaw the global management and marketing of the Playskool and Mr . Potato Head brands .
In 1998 , Whitman joined eBay , a then-fledgling online auction platform , as its President and CEO . Under her stewardship , eBay grew from a company with 30 employees and US $ 4m in annual revenue to a global enterprise employing 15,000 people with almost US $ 8bn in revenue by the time she stepped down in 2008 . She was instrumental in launching initiatives like ‘ Buy it Now ’ and led the company through its initial public offering ( IPO ) in 1998 .
“ The challenge at eBay was how to keep up with a 70 % compound monthly growth rate ,” Whitman said in a 2016 interview with Harvard Business Review . “ But the principles of leadership were the same : clear strategy , well communicated , well metricked . Celebrate the victories and hold people , including yourself , accountable for results . When you ’ re the CEO of a 30-person company that grows to 15,000 people , as eBay did , you have to keep reinventing yourself as the company scales .”
After leaving eBay , Whitman ventured into politics , running as a Republican candidate for the Governor of California in 2010 but was defeated by Jerry Brown . She returned to the business arena in 2011 as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard . At HP , she faced the enormous task of reviving
MEG WHITMAN
TITLE : FORMER CEO COMPANY : EBAY AND HP LOCATION : KENYA
Margaret ‘ Meg ’ Whitman has significant experience leading business organisations , from start-ups to large multinational companies in Silicon Valley . She has served as the President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Hewlett-Packard Company , and served as President and CEO of eBay Inc . technologymagazine . com 31