If you know Carly Fiorina is running for the Republican presidential nomination, you probably know at least one other thing about her: that she once ran Hewlett-Packard — and was fired from the company. But did you know she attended high school in … Ghana?
That’s one of many places she went to school. Fiorina, 61, was born in Austin, Texas, and had a peripatetic childhood thanks to her law-professor father’s career. Fast forward to the present, and she’s being hailed for a strong performance in Wednesday night’s Republican debate. Here are five things to know about Fiorina — besides the rockiness of her tenure at H-P.
‘Perpetually the new kid’: In her memoir, “Tough Choices,” Fiorina describes herself in her early years as “perpetually the new kid in class.” She writes that she went to elementary school in New York, Connecticut and California. Junior high was in California and England. For high school, it was Ghana, California and North Carolina. “In the course of all this moving around, I learned a lot about people and a lot about change,” she writes in her book.
Her favorite college subject wasn’t economics:Fiorina’s academic résumé doesn’t start off sounding like that of a CEO. Though she later got an MBA, her undergraduate degree from Stanford University is in medieval history and philosophy. In a 2001 commencement speech at her alma mater,“The most valuable class I took at Stanford was not Econ 51. It was a graduate seminar called, believe it or not, Christian, Islamic and Jewish Political Philosophies of the Middle Ages.” Why was it so valuable? Distilling “huge texts” into two-page papers was a great intellectual workout, she told students. “Through the years, I’ve used it again and again — the mental exercise of synthesis and distillation and getting to the very heart of things.”
She lost a Senate race by 10 points: If you’re not a political junkie, you may not recall that Fiorina ran for the U.S. Senate from California in 2010. She lost. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, won the race by nearly 10 percentage points. Yet polls during the race showed Fiorina as close as a point away from Boxer — evidence of her appeal in a traditionally blue state. The race is also remembered — not least by Boxer — for Fiorina’s calling her opponent’s hairstyle “so yesterday.”
She lost a daughter: During Wednesday’s debate, Fiorina said she had “buried a child to drug addiction.” That child was stepdaughter Lori, who died in 2009 at age 35. After relating the experience, Fiorina said the U.S. must invest more in drug-treatment programs. It became the most-searched moment of the debate, the Washington Post reported.
She opposes requiring paid maternity leave: The issue of paid maternity leave didn’t come up in Wednesday night’s debate, but it’s been in the news with Yahoo YHOO, -1.50% CEO Marissa Mayer saying she plans on taking minimal leave after the birth of the twins she is expecting. Fiorina’s take: The government shouldn’t require companies to offer such leave. “I’m not saying I oppose paid maternity leave,” she told CNN in August. “What I’m saying is I oppose the federal government mandating paid maternity leave to every company out there.” On this issue she sounds much different from the only other major female candidate seeking the White House, Democrat Hillary Clinton. “The United States is the only country in the developed world without guaranteed paid leave of any kind. That has to change,” Clinton’s website states.
‘Perpetually the new kid’: In her memoir, “Tough Choices,” Fiorina describes herself in her early years as “perpetually the new kid in class.” She writes that she went to elementary school in New York, Connecticut and California. Junior high was in California and England. For high school, it was Ghana, California and North Carolina. “In the course of all this moving around, I learned a lot about people and a lot about change,” she writes in her book.
Her favorite college subject wasn’t economics:Fiorina’s academic résumé doesn’t start off sounding like that of a CEO. Though she later got an MBA, her undergraduate degree from Stanford University is in medieval history and philosophy. In a 2001 commencement speech at her alma mater,“The most valuable class I took at Stanford was not Econ 51. It was a graduate seminar called, believe it or not, Christian, Islamic and Jewish Political Philosophies of the Middle Ages.” Why was it so valuable? Distilling “huge texts” into two-page papers was a great intellectual workout, she told students. “Through the years, I’ve used it again and again — the mental exercise of synthesis and distillation and getting to the very heart of things.”
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| Carly Fiorina |
She lost a Senate race by 10 points: If you’re not a political junkie, you may not recall that Fiorina ran for the U.S. Senate from California in 2010. She lost. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, won the race by nearly 10 percentage points. Yet polls during the race showed Fiorina as close as a point away from Boxer — evidence of her appeal in a traditionally blue state. The race is also remembered — not least by Boxer — for Fiorina’s calling her opponent’s hairstyle “so yesterday.”
She lost a daughter: During Wednesday’s debate, Fiorina said she had “buried a child to drug addiction.” That child was stepdaughter Lori, who died in 2009 at age 35. After relating the experience, Fiorina said the U.S. must invest more in drug-treatment programs. It became the most-searched moment of the debate, the Washington Post reported.
She opposes requiring paid maternity leave: The issue of paid maternity leave didn’t come up in Wednesday night’s debate, but it’s been in the news with Yahoo YHOO, -1.50% CEO Marissa Mayer saying she plans on taking minimal leave after the birth of the twins she is expecting. Fiorina’s take: The government shouldn’t require companies to offer such leave. “I’m not saying I oppose paid maternity leave,” she told CNN in August. “What I’m saying is I oppose the federal government mandating paid maternity leave to every company out there.” On this issue she sounds much different from the only other major female candidate seeking the White House, Democrat Hillary Clinton. “The United States is the only country in the developed world without guaranteed paid leave of any kind. That has to change,” Clinton’s website states.
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