Former Downtown Business Breakfast Speaker Vies for Senate Seat

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, challenges Senator Barbara Boxer

Carly Fiorina, SPU's 2008 Downtown Business Breakfast Speaker and a 2010 U.S. Senate candidate

Carly Fiorina, former chair and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and 2008 speaker for Seattle Pacific University's annual Downtown Business Breakfast, announced her run for U.S. Senate on November 4, 2009. She is challenging three-term incumbant Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California.

Fiorina was the first woman ever to head a Fortune 20 company, serving as chair and CEO of the technology company from 1999 to 2005. Now one of the most recognized leaders in business, Fiorina had risen through the ranks of AT&T and Lucent Technologies before taking over the helm of Hewlett-Packard.

In April 2008 at SPU's premier business event and then in a public lecture on campus, Fiorina shared lessons she learned on leadership, globalization, competition, and organizational change. She is the author of The New York Times best-seller Tough Choices: A Memoir, and a strategic advisor to business and government.

Fiorina, a Republican, worked on John McCain's presidential bid. More recently, she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer last year. Reported The Los Angeles Times: " Fiorina, whose hair was shorn close to her scalp after a nine-month battle with breast cancer, said she expected the race to get ugly. 'I have to say, after chemotherapy, Barbara Boxer just isn't that scary,' she said."

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