Title Former Presidential Candidate; Former Chief Executive Officer of HP Company Bio Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina was born Cara Carleton Sneed in Austin, Texas on September 6, 1954. After dropping out of law school, she became an AT&T management trainee. She moved up the company ladder and became the first female officer in the Network Systems division. In 1998, she was put in charge of Lucent's Global Service Provider division. A year later, she was tapped as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. After the controversial merger with Compaq Computers didn’t meet expectations, Fiorina was forced to resign. She then became a consultant for Republican candidates. In 2010, Fiorina made a run for the U.S. Senate in California. She was defeated in that race, but she then set her sights on the White House. In 2015, Fiorina announced that she was running for the Republican nomination for president.