Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman
Born	Margaret Cushing Whitman 4 8, 1956
Birthplace	Huntington, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Business executive, diplomat
Known for	CEO of eBay (1998–2008), CEO of Hewlett-Packard/Hewlett Packard Enterprise (2011–2018), U.S. Ambassador to Kenya (2022–2024)
Education	Harvard University (MBA) Princeton University (AB)
Children	2
Awards	Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women (2014)

Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956), known as Meg Whitman, is an American business executive, diplomat, and political figure whose career has spanned some of the most consequential chapters of the modern technology industry. She is best known for her decade-long tenure as president and chief executive officer of eBay, during which she oversaw the company's growth from a small online auction site into a global e-commerce platform. Whitman subsequently served as president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) and its successor company Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In the political arena, she ran as the Republican nominee for governor of California in 2010, spending a then-record amount of personal funds on a single election campaign before losing to Democrat Jerry Brown. In 2022, she was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed as the United States Ambassador to Kenya, a post she held until November 2024. Since leaving diplomatic service, Whitman has returned to the corporate world, serving on multiple boards of directors including those of CoreWeave, Motive, and The Nature Conservancy. In 2014, Forbes ranked Whitman 20th on its list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.

Early Life

Margaret Cushing Whitman was born on August 4, 1956, in Huntington, New York. She grew up on Long Island and developed an early interest in business and economics. As a young woman, she was drawn to competitive pursuits, which would later inform her approach to corporate leadership and political campaigning.

Whitman's upbringing in the suburban communities of Long Island provided her with a foundation that combined traditional East Coast values with an entrepreneurial sensibility. Details regarding her parents and family background during her formative years reflect a middle-class American household that placed emphasis on education and achievement.

Education

Whitman attended Princeton University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her undergraduate studies provided her with a broad liberal arts education, and it was during her time at Princeton that she began to develop the analytical and leadership skills that would define her later career.

Following her undergraduate education, Whitman enrolled at Harvard Business School, where she earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA). The combination of a Princeton undergraduate education and a Harvard MBA positioned her for entry into the upper echelons of American corporate management, a path she pursued with significant results in the decades that followed.

Career

Early Corporate Career and The Walt Disney Company

Before her rise to prominence in the technology sector, Whitman held executive positions at several major American corporations. Among her early career posts was a role at The Walt Disney Company, where she gained experience in brand management and consumer-facing business operations. These early positions provided Whitman with a grounding in marketing, strategic planning, and large-scale corporate operations that she would later apply to her work in the technology industry.

eBay (1998–2008)

Whitman's most prominent corporate role, and the one that established her reputation as one of the leading business executives of the internet era, was her tenure as president and chief executive officer of eBay. She joined the company in March 1998, when eBay was still a relatively small online auction startup with approximately 30 employees and revenues of roughly $4 million.

Under Whitman's leadership, eBay experienced dramatic growth, transforming from a niche internet platform into a global e-commerce giant. During her decade at the helm, the company expanded its user base to hundreds of millions worldwide and its revenues grew substantially. Whitman oversaw eBay's initial public offering and navigated the company through the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, a period that saw many internet-based companies fail. Her management strategy focused on building community trust among buyers and sellers, expanding the platform's categories, and pursuing strategic acquisitions to broaden eBay's reach.

Whitman's leadership at eBay was recognized by the Harvard Business Review, which included her in its list of top-performing CEOs. Her tenure at the company made her one of the most visible women in the technology industry and a frequent subject of media profiles examining the role of women in corporate leadership.

Whitman stepped down as CEO of eBay in March 2008, after ten years in the role. By that time, the company she had helped build had become one of the defining platforms of the early internet economy.

2010 California Gubernatorial Campaign

After leaving eBay, Whitman entered the political arena. In 2010, she ran for governor of California as the Republican Party nominee, challenging Democrat Jerry Brown, the state's former governor. The race attracted national attention due in part to the unprecedented amount of personal wealth Whitman invested in her campaign.

Whitman spent approximately $144 million of her own fortune on the gubernatorial race, with the campaign's total expenditures reaching $178.5 million including donor contributions. At the time, this represented the largest expenditure of personal funds by any political candidate in a single American election, a record that stood until Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign. By 2010, Whitman was estimated to be the fifth-wealthiest woman in California, with a net worth of approximately $1.3 billion.

During the campaign, Whitman staked out positions on several key California policy issues. On environmental policy, she expressed skepticism about the state's greenhouse gas emissions initiative, suggesting she would suspend the implementation of California's landmark climate legislation. On immigration, she addressed the contentious issue of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, a subject that generated debate within the Republican primary electorate and in the general election.

Despite her substantial financial investment, Whitman lost the general election to Brown by a significant margin, with Brown receiving 54 percent of the vote to Whitman's 41 percent. The defeat was one of the most expensive losses in American political history and prompted widespread discussion about the limits of personal wealth in electoral politics.

Presidential Campaign Involvement

Beyond her own gubernatorial bid, Whitman was involved in presidential politics as a senior campaign official for Republican Mitt Romney. She held advisory and leadership roles in Romney's 2008 presidential primary campaign and again during his 2012 presidential campaign. During the 2008 campaign, Whitman served on the John McCain presidential campaign in a supporting capacity as well.

In subsequent election cycles, Whitman's political alignment shifted. She supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, signaling a departure from the Republican Party. By 2025, Whitman stated publicly that she was a registered Democrat.

Hewlett-Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (2011–2018)

In September 2011, Whitman was named president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP), one of the world's largest technology companies. She succeeded Léo Apotheker, whose brief and turbulent tenure had left the company in a period of strategic uncertainty.

Whitman's appointment came at a time when HP was grappling with declining PC sales, questions about its enterprise services strategy, and the aftermath of several high-profile leadership changes. She was tasked with stabilizing the company, restoring investor confidence, and charting a long-term strategic direction.

One of the most significant decisions of Whitman's tenure at HP was the 2015 split of the company into two separate publicly traded entities: HP Inc., which retained the personal computer and printing businesses, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which focused on enterprise technology solutions including servers, storage, networking, and consulting services. Whitman served as president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise following the split.

During her time leading HP and HPE, the company undertook significant restructuring, including substantial workforce reductions. The company announced plans to cut approximately 30,000 jobs as part of its turnaround efforts, a decision that attracted criticism but was framed by the company's leadership as a necessary step to restore competitiveness.

Whitman stepped down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in February 2018, concluding a tenure that was marked by the company's transformation from a sprawling conglomerate into a more focused enterprise technology provider.

Quibi

Following her departure from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Whitman took on the role of CEO at Quibi, a short-form video streaming platform founded by media executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. The service, which launched in April 2020, was designed to deliver premium content in short episodes of ten minutes or less, optimized for mobile viewing.

Whitman and Katzenberg presented the concept of Quibi at major industry events, including the 2019 SXSW conference, where they discussed the intersection of technology and entertainment and the future of mobile-first content consumption.

Despite significant pre-launch investment and media attention, Quibi struggled to attract and retain subscribers after its April 2020 launch, which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The service shut down approximately six months after launching, making it one of the most prominent startup failures in the media and entertainment sector. The company's rapid demise was widely analyzed as a case study in the challenges of launching a new streaming platform in an increasingly crowded market.

United States Ambassador to Kenya (2022–2024)

In 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Whitman to serve as the United States Ambassador to Kenya. She was confirmed by the United States Senate and began her service on August 5, 2022, succeeding Kyle McCarter, who had served in the role under President Donald Trump.

Whitman's appointment as ambassador represented a significant transition from the corporate sector to diplomacy. Kenya is a key U.S. strategic partner in East Africa, and the ambassadorial post involves managing a broad portfolio of issues including trade, security cooperation, counterterrorism, and development assistance.

Whitman served as ambassador until November 13, 2024, after which Marc Dillard assumed the role of chargé d'affaires.

Post-Ambassadorial Career

Following her return from Kenya, Whitman resumed an active role in the corporate world. In March 2025, CoreWeave, an AI cloud computing company, announced her appointment as an independent member of its board of directors. In September 2025, Motive, an AI-powered operations platform for the physical economy, named Whitman to its board of directors.

Also in October 2025, The Nature Conservancy announced Whitman's return to its global board of directors, reflecting her continued involvement in environmental conservation efforts.

In November 2025, Whitman participated in the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute, where she discussed leadership during periods of economic uncertainty, including the impact of tariffs and trade tensions on global markets.

Whitman has also been active in public policy discussions in New Mexico, where she resides. In November 2025, she gave a public address calling for changes to New Mexico's approach to its economy, education system, and health care, arguing that the state should "rewrite its narrative" and not define itself as a poor state.

Personal Life

Meg Whitman has two children. She resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Whitman's political affiliations have evolved over the course of her career. She was a member of the Republican Party during her 2010 gubernatorial campaign and during her work on Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns. However, she publicly supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. By 2025, Whitman stated that she was a registered Democrat.

Her involvement with The Nature Conservancy, where she has served on the global board of directors, reflects an interest in environmental conservation that has been a recurring element of her public activities outside of corporate management.

Recognition

In 2008, The New York Times cited Whitman as among the women most likely to become the first female president of the United States, reflecting her high public profile at the time following her successful tenure at eBay.

In 2014, Forbes magazine ranked Whitman 20th on its annual list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World, recognizing her role leading one of the world's largest technology companies at Hewlett-Packard.

The Harvard Business Review included Whitman in its ranking of the world's best-performing CEOs, citing the growth and performance of eBay during her decade-long leadership of the company.

Whitman's career has been the subject of academic and research study, particularly in the fields of women's studies, business leadership, and technology industry history. EBSCO's research database includes her as a notable subject in women's studies and feminism scholarship, reflecting her significance as one of the few women to have led multiple Fortune 500 companies and to have run for major statewide office.

Legacy

Meg Whitman's career spans multiple sectors—corporate technology, media, politics, and diplomacy—and her trajectory from eBay CEO to gubernatorial candidate to U.S. ambassador illustrates the increasingly fluid boundaries between American business and public life in the early 21st century.

Her tenure at eBay is considered a defining chapter in the history of e-commerce. Under her leadership, the company grew from a startup into a global marketplace, and the business model she helped develop—connecting individual buyers and sellers through a technology platform—presaged the broader platform economy that would come to dominate the technology industry in subsequent decades.

At Hewlett-Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Whitman oversaw one of the most significant corporate restructurings in the technology industry, splitting a legacy hardware and services conglomerate into two more focused companies. The decision to separate HP into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise remains a subject of analysis in business and management studies.

Her 2010 gubernatorial campaign, while unsuccessful, remains notable for the scale of its self-financing and the questions it raised about the role of personal wealth in American elections. The $144 million she spent from her own funds set a record that stood for a decade.

Whitman's political evolution—from Republican gubernatorial candidate and Romney campaign advisor to supporter of Clinton and Biden, and ultimately to registered Democrat—mirrors broader shifts among certain segments of the American business community during the period from 2010 to 2025.

In her post-ambassadorial career, Whitman has continued to be active in corporate governance and public discourse, serving on the boards of technology companies including CoreWeave and Motive, and engaging with public policy issues in her adopted state of New Mexico.