Top Book Recommendations by Meg Whitman: Best Books for Success
Margaret Cushing Whitman is an American business executive, political activist, and philanthropist. She is the CEO of Quibi and serves on the boards of Procter & Gamble and Dropbox. Whitman previously served as president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She was also the CEO of Quibi from its foundation in August 2018 until its closure in December 2020. Whitman was a senior member of Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 and ran for governor of California as a Republican in 2010, but supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election and Joe Biden in the 2020 general election.
Whitman was an executive in The Walt Disney Company, where she was vice president of Strategic Planning throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, she was an executive for DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro. In addition, Whitman was president and CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008. During Whitman's ten 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 yearly revenue. In 2014, Whitman was named 20th in the 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. Instead, she ran for Governor of California in 2010. She won the Republican primary. The fifth-wealthiest woman in California with a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2010, she spent the second more of her own money on the race than any other political candidate spent on a single election in American history, spending $144 million of her fortune and $178.5 million in total, including money from donors, a record surpassed only by Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 presidential election.
Whitman was defeated by Democratic former Governor Jerry Brown in the 2010 California gubernatorial election by 54% to 41%. In December 2021, Whitman was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the United States Ambassador to Kenya.