Carly Fiorina is a business executive and politician who ran for the Republican party's nomination for President during the 2016 election. She is a former executive of both AT&T and Hewlett-Packard, and was the first woman to lead a top 20 company as ranked in Fortune Magazine.

Fiorina was born in Austin, Texas on September 6, 1954. Her father taught at the University of Texas, and as a child she attended boarding school in London. She attended five different high schools around the world, and was accepted to Stanford University, from which she graduated with a bachelors of arts degree in philosophy and midieval history. Fiorina dropped out of UCLA law school in 1976 after only one semester, and received her masters in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1980. Immediately upon graduation she was hired as a trainee doing federal sales at AT&T, and quickly rose up the corporate ladder. In 1990 Fiorina was named AT&T's senior vice president overseeing the company's hardware and systems division, and five years later she was named head of AT&T's North American operations. AT&T launched a spinoff company known as Lucent in late 1995, and executives chose Fiorina to oversee corporate operations. She enjoyed a successful career at Lucent, and was named “the most powerful woman in American business,” in the October 1998 edition of Fortune Magazine.

Hewlett-Packard hired Fiorina as it's CEO in July 1999, making her the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company. In 2002 Carly Fiorina oversaw the largest tech-company merger ever, as HP merged with their rival Compaq, making HP the largest personal computer manufacturer in the world. The merger was controversial and caused much infighting within the HP executive board. Merging with Compaq caused HP's company debt to rise from $4.25 billion to $6.75 billion, and their stock price to fall 50%. Fiorina encouraged employees to take pay-cuts and/or use vacation time to cut costs, and employees booed her at company functions. In total, 30,000 workers were laid off during Fiorina's tenure as HP's CEO. Due to financial strain and disagreements within the board of directors, in 2004 Carly Fiorina was forced to step down as CEO of HP, causing a significant jump in their stock prices.

Pre-2004 during her tenure at AT&T and HP, she was consistently ranked as one of the most powerful women in business and most influential people in the world. Following her departure from HP she has been ranked as one of the worst tech-CEO's of all time, with many people describing her time as CEO of HP as a “flop.”

After resigning from HP, Fiorina served on the boards of multiple companies and organizations including Revolution Health Group, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and the MIT Corporation. She currently serves as the chairperson of Good360, a charitable non-profit organization that assists companies in donating excess merchandise and food products to organizations and people in need. Good360 is the 33^rd largest charity in the United States, and is widely considered to be one of the most effective and benificial charitable organizations in the country. She ran an unsuccessful bid for Senate in California in 2010, and was defeated by Barbara Boxer. As of May 2015 she allegedly had not fully paid twelve senior staffers from her 2010 campaign.

Breaking from her Republican peers, Fiorina has stated that she agrees with the consensus of the scientific community that global warming is real and humans are having an impact on it. She has voiced her opposition to Common Core Standards being taught in schools, and is a proponent of No Child Left Behind. Fiorina is against the nuclear agreement with Iran, and is in favor of arming Ukraine to “send a very clear message to Vladimir Putin.” During interviews Fiorina has stated she would support a nation-wide amendment banning same-sex marriage, and as a citizen of California Fiorina voted in favor of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Fiorina is against the establishment of a federal minimum wage, opposes gun-control legislation, and opposes net neutrality.

Although she has never held public office, Fiorina launched her bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency on May 4, 2015, during an interview on Good Morning America. Journalists and media professionals continually brought up her questionable tenure as CEO of HP during the campaign, attacking her for laying off thousands of workers while enjoying millions of dollars in bonuses.

Carly Fiorina placed seventh in the New Hampshire Primary on February 9, 2016, earning zero delegates but winning 4.2% of the votes nonetheless. She suspended her campaign the following day.

U.S. - Israel Relationship

“I really was struck by the fact that President Obama went to visit a Mosque. Good for him. But I have never heard President Obama stand up and talk about the endless acts of violence against Jewish synagogues in this country.”
(C-Span, February 6, 2016)
“On day one in the Oval Office, I would make two phone calls. The first one would be to the Israeli Prime Minister that we will stand with the State of Israel.”
(Fox News Debate)
“As a U.S. senator, Carly will also make it her priority to stand with our nation’s allies, and especially to defend the State of Israel. Carly will consistently protect and uphold the nation’s right to self-defense.”
(Carly Fiorina Senate Campaign Website)

Iran

“(the Iran deal is) a grave threat to American security at home and abroad.”
(Breaking Israel News, August 25, 2015)
“Iran has demonstrated over years that they cheat on every deal. Iran will use the money they gain from sanctions being lifted to continue to fund enemies in the region.”
(Hugh Hewitt, July 14, 2015)
“Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is speaking at AIPAC right now. We must hear his message and heed his warning about Iran.”
(Carly Fiorina's Facebook Page, March 2, 2015)

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“The peace process ultimately must include a two-state solution. However, I do not support the notion that Jerusalem should be a divided capital.”
(Breaking Israel News, August 25, 2015)

2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign: Carly Fiorina