Postcards
Meg Whitman on easing HP's "post-traumatic stress"
November 21, 2011: 2:09 PM ETMeg Whitman's first report card as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) comes this afternoon when the company announces fourth-quarter earnings.
In the 60 days since she took the job, Whitman has settled on a strategy (keep HP in the PC business), worked to raise employee morale (terrible after three CEO ousters), and lifted the stock (up 12% since her appointment). But the former eBay (EBAY) chief, who lost her race for governor of California a year ago, has an enormous challenge ahead in reviving America's largest technology company.
"There is a bit of post-traumatic stress syndrome in the organization," she admitted at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit early last month, just days after she began the HP job. In a candid interview with Nina Easton, Fortune's Washington editor, Whitman compared HP to California--surprisingly, almost the same size by several key measures. But Whitman feels a lot more comfortable in one realm than the other, as she told us at the Summit.
Click here for the full transcript of the interview with Whitman at the MPW Summit.
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New IBM CEO means two top tech chiefs are women
Ginni Rometty is the next CEO of IBM, the company announced this afternoon.
With that news comes a stunning stat: America's two largest tech companies will be headed by women.
Meg Whitman, who built eBay (EBAY), became CEO of Hewlett-Packard last month.
H-P (HPQ) is No. 11 on the Fortune 500. IBM (IBM) is No. 18.
Both women spoke at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Rometty's main message (and one that Whitman MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 25, 2011 5:41 PM ETPosted in: CEOs, Ginni Rometty, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Meg Whitman, Most Powerful Women, Postcards, technology -
Most Powerful Women: The network effect
What happens when influential women like Meg Whitman, Ellen Kullman - and a guy: Warren Buffett - get together? They share smart ideas and - forge unexpected new relationships.
FORTUNE -- Big topics -- the global economy, presidential politics, boardroom drama -- got plenty of airtime at Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women Summit in early October. Meg Whitman (No. 9), the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), outlined plans for calming the waters at MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 25, 2011 5:00 AM ET -
HP's Whitman sets the record for female Fortune 500 CEOs
With Meg Whitman nabbing the CEO job at Hewlett-Packard--and the four women at the bottom of this list (below) new to the top job this year--America now has 15 female Fortune 500 CEOs.
Not a number to be proud of, but hey, it's a record and it is progress nonetheless.
Here are the women at the helm--including the rank of their companies on the Fortune 500:
11 Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
39 Pat Woertz, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 23, 2011 2:00 PM ET -
For Whitman, HP is the next best thing to running California
Meg Whitman is the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). Not interim chief. This is Whitman's for-real next big gig.
And it is big indeed, given that the storied Silicon Valley company has lurched from chief to chief to chief ever since the board, in 1999, eased out Lew Platt and recruited Carly Fiorina from Lucent (ALU).
Fiorina was the first No. 1 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list, at the top MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 22, 2011 5:05 PM ET -
P&G rates an "A" for board diversity
by Patricia Sellers
The takeaway was pretty discouraging this week when Fortune and recruiting giant Heidrick & Struggles (HSII) co-hosted a discussion on women and boards.
The participants -- members of the Fortune Most Powerful Women community convening in Washington, D.C. -- came up with lots of reasons that "corporate boards get a D for diversity" (the title of my Postcard on Monday). Such as: the club-like culture of boards, the white MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 5, 2011 10:16 AM ET -
Meg Whitman to join Kleiner Perkins
Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who got trounced in the race for California governor last November, has a new career plan: Venture capital with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
By Patricia Sellers
Meg Whitman, who is in Hawaii until Wednesday with her neurosurgeon husband Griff Harsh, declined to comment, but sources close to her and to the venerable Silicon Valley venture capital firm say that Kleiner will bring Whitman in as a MORE
Patricia Sellers - Mar 29, 2011 2:54 PM ET -
On power: Women in politics and men in big families
by Patricia Sellers
I'm back from "vacation." Since the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit (view sessions here) wrapped in early October, the "chronic networker" that I am (one of my Time Inc. bosses accused me of being this) has been racing around the U.S. -- LA, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Boston, Atlanta, Allentown PA, my hometown. I'm back on New York terra firma at last.
While I was out, I worked on MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 2, 2010 11:31 AM ETPosted in: Bank of America, banks, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman, Morgan Stanley, politics, Postcards, Wall Street -
Can Meg Whitman win in California? Maybe
by Patricia Sellers
I'm just back from a week in California and still on vacation--technically. But I'm speaking about my favorite topic, Women and Power, tonight in Boston and have a couple more speaking gigs next week. So I'll check in on Postcards occasionally.
Speaking of Women and Power, whip-smart Karen Tumulty, who used to write for TIME and is now at the Washington Post, emailed me this story about Meg Whitman MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 21, 2010 9:45 AM ET -
Meeting Governor Arnold...and Meg and Carly's political chances
by Patricia Sellers
Sometimes Los Angeles behaves like a small town.
This past Sunday, I ran into Maria Shriver at Room at the Beach, a Malibu store owned by my friend Elizabeth Lamont.
The next morning, coincidentally, I had breakfast with a close friend/colleague of Shriver. And no sooner did I sit down at Le Pain Quotidien than the Governator walked in. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on his way to Sacramento, presumably to MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 25, 2010 12:54 PM ETPosted in: Carly Fiorina, eBay, FORTUNE MPWomen, Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, politics, Postcards, Power Shift, Silicon Valley
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
In her first public interview since taking on the CEO gig at Yahoo, Marissa Mayer outlines her priorities both in and out of the company. Watch
Brenda Barnes famously quit a big job to be with her kids. Years later, a massive stroke nearly killed her--and her daughter returned the favor. Watch
Fortune senior editor at large Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo," "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), and "Remodeling Martha" (Martha Stewart). She has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" package every year since its launch in 1998. Pattie is Executive Director of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business and beyond. She oversees MPW programs that enable women leaders to extend their influence and empower the next generation—such as Fortune MPW Entrepreneurs and the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Beyond her Fortune duties, she is also developing Live Content across Time Inc. Pattie grew up in Allentown, PA, graduated from the University of Virginia, and started at Fortune in 1984. Her blog, Postcards, is about how power players lead, manage others, and navigate their careers.
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The Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership brings rising-star women from countries around the world to the U.S. for three-week mentorships with participants of the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit - among them Ursula Burns of Xerox, Laura Lang of Time Inc., Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, and Tory Burch.
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