Meg Whitman
Meg Whitman is best known as the former president and CEO of the online auctionhouse eBay, which transformed her to into a billionaire during her tenure from 1998 to 2008.
Whitman grew up in Long Island, N.Y. She graduated with a degree in economics from Princeton before going on to earn an MBA at Harvard.
She began her career as a brand assistant for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati before moving on to business consulting firm Bain & Co. in San Francisco. At Bain, Whitman worked for Mitt Romney, who later would be elected governor of Massachusetts and run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
Whitman later moved on to executive positions at Disney, children’s shoe manufacturer Stride Rite and flower delivery company FTD and Hasbro before being tapped to head eBay in 1998. She also served on several corporate boards, including DreamWorks SKG and Goldman Sachs. She resigned her post at Goldman in 2002 amid controversy that she received preferential access to stock offerings.
During Whitman’s 10 years at eBay, the company transformed from a small Silicon Valley startup into a multibillion-dollar international corporation widely viewed as one of the token success stories of the dot-com boom. EBay’s rise brought with it awards, accolades and riches for Whitman, whose net worth when she left the company was at least $1.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Whitman’s formal introduction to politics came in 2008, when she served as a finance chair for Romney’s presidential campaign and later held the same post for eventual Republican nominee John McCain after Romney dropped out of the race.
Her first test as a candidate came in June, when she defeated State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in a hard-fought primary election in which she spent $71 million of her own money.
Whitman is married to Stanford neurosurgeon Griffith Harsh IV. They have two sons and live in Atherton.
Meg Whitman's most recent statements
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 7, 2010Mike Murphy, chief strategist to Meg Whitman, blamed public-employee unions and California's status as "a very blue state" for the GOP gubernatorial candidate's loss to Democrat Jerry Brown on Tuesday, even as she spent a national record $142 million of her own money trying to beat him.
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Assertion of fact
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 7, 2010"The big unions in the last couple of years have spent $300 million on politics," Murphy said. "So, you either can't raise enough money to compete, and they swamp you ... or you spend your own money, but if you're a self-funder, the press wants to make that money the issue."
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Labor, Assertion of fact
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 7, 2010Murphy also blamed spending by the state's influential public-employee unions, in part, for the loss, saying they "run California politics." Unions spent heavily on TV ads attacking Whitman during the summer months as Brown hoarded his limited treasury. "They paid for Jerry Brown's campaign," he said.
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Labor, Assertion of fact, Candidate attack
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 7, 2010"We got beat. And, you know, I ran the campaign. I take responsibility for it," Murphy said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's a very blue state, and it's getting bluer. As the red, you know, wave, kind of went one way, there was a bit of blue riptide coming the other way." Whitman was able to win GOP and independent votes, he said, but not Democrats, and "in California, if you don't win a lot of Democrats, you don't win." Murphy, who was paid $90,000 a month by Whitman for his strategic advice, had avoided questions about the race since Tuesday's defeat. The voters, he said Sunday, rejected "CEO candidates who were doing kind of a tough-medicine message."
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Assertion of fact
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 4, 2010Friends: From the beginning of this campaign, I asked Californians who believe in a new vision for our state to join me. I have never stopped being amazed over these many months by the breadth and enthusiasm of your response. Your time and energy were critical to building this campaign. ... We overcame great obstacles to get this far, and I could not be any prouder of the race we ran. I gave it my all and so did you. We came up short, but certainly not for lack of hard work, determination and a clear vision for making our state better. Politics too often lacks humanity; I wanted this campaign to be something different, reaching all parts of California and engaging communities that often are overlooked or whose votes are taken for granted. By that score, we succeeded and how. We took the time and invested the resources to introduce our campaign to the state's incredibly diverse population. We met with hundreds of small business employers and their workers. By Tuesday, we had held more than 750 events. The journey is ending, but the mission is not. We did not achieve the victory we worked so hard for, but that is not a reason to give up on what's most important. We love California and we still believe our state can be a better place. You probably are familiar with my belief in the Power of Many. We proved it at eBay, and we proved it again in this campaign: Together, inspired people with common goals can accomplish what none of us can do alone. If you care about California's future, I have one more request of you: Let's keep working, each of us in our own way, to make our state great again. After all, we are Californians who always see a brighter horizon. Thank you again for being part of this remarkable effort.
Source: Meg Whitman campaignTags: Campaigns and politics, Quotable
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 3, 2010Congratulations to @jerrybrown2010. To everyone who was part of our campaign - thank you. Our journey is ending, but the mission is not.
Source: Meg Whitman campaignTags: Campaigns and politics, Quotable
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 2, 2010The only poll that matters is tomorrow," she said. "We're going to battle it out til the end." She said there would be "some surprised folks" after the ballots are tallied.
Source:Tags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 2, 2010More than 40,000 volunteers had already made millions of phone calls, Whitman said as she forecast victory for the entire GOP ticket. "Thank you for what you have done for me, for California, for the rest of the ticket," she said. "You have made an enormous difference because how are elections won? They are won by people filling out absentee ballots for you and going to the polls."
Source:Tags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 2, 2010"So are you ready to get California moving again? I'm ready, are you?" she asked dozens gathered at a phone bank in a Woodland Hills strip mall. "This is exciting and I want to thank you for everything you are doing. Whose hands is this election in? Yours. … We are going to win this because we're going to turn out the vote."
Source:Tags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 1, 2010"It's all going to depend on voter turnout." she told reporters. "I feel great about it. I'm really excited." If she does win, one reporter asked, would there be a place in her administration for her opponent, Jerry Brown? Whitman thought about it for less than a second and then said, "No."
Source: San Jose Mercury NewsTags: Campaigns and politics, Policy or issue position
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 1, 2010Rallying volunteers in Costa Mesa, GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman predicted victory on Election Day. "We are going to win this thing," Whitman said, beaming. "It is really, really exciting."
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 1, 2010Before sitting down to make calls under green and white signs emblazoned with campaign slogans, she told the small crowd that she could “feel the momentum” that would ensure her victory Tuesday. She noted that she has made dozens of visits to San Diego and told supporters that she was running for them, their children and their grandchildren. “Whose hands is this election in?” she asked before the crowd again erupted into cheers, responding to Whitman with chants of “We are ready.”
Source: San Diego Union-TribuneTags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Nov. 1, 2010"You all are fantastic," she said. "This office has done so much for this campaign, for California, for our children and our grandchildren. Give yourself a huge round of applause." "This is my third rally of the day in offices like this, I've got a couple more to go," she continued. "I can feel the energy and the enthusiasm."
Source: PolitiCal (Los Angeles Times)Tags: Campaigns and politics, Quotable
Meg Whitman
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Oct. 31, 2010"We have a chance to put a proven job creator in office for the first time in many, many years," Whitman said in rallying supporters on Saturday at the Orange County fairgrounds. "We have a chance to create real change in Sacramento. My bus, right there, it's called the 'Take Back Sac Express' because we're going to take back California for our children and our grandchildren."
Source: Associated PressTags: Campaigns and politics, Prediction
Meg Whitman
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Oct. 29, 2010At a press conference, Whitman said she was not surprised by the aggression of her opponents, which she said betrayed fear that she would slash their "lavish pensions" and other benefits. "What you see is that the unions are fighting for the control they've had in Sacramento for the past 10 to 15 years," she said.
Source: Los Angeles TimesTags: Campaigns and politics, Labor, Assertion of fact
