Carly Fiorina

She was a well-known business leader in the tech industry. She became chief executive of Hewlett-Packard in 1999-2005, and ealier was an executive with Lucent Technologies and AT&T.

Her husband retired from AT&T.

Her stand (entering the race)

Former technology executive Carly Fiorina announced on Monday, May 4, she’s running for president. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson launched his bid the same day. Both Fiorina and Carson have the potential to help the GOP win over a more diverse group of supporters in 2016.

Fiorina is the only prominent woman to seek the GOP nomination, with Carson the only African-American. They are both also political outsiders in a field likely to be dominated by governors, former governors and senators.

The two are not considered political allies and the timing of their announcements, planned weeks ahead, was coincidental.

Fiorina, 60, chose a nationally broadcast morning network news show to announce her candidacy, and she also posted a video.

The former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” said she understands “executive decision-making.”

She also criticized Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for her party’s nomination, for a lack of transparency, including the use of a private email server while secretary of State and foreign donations to her family’s charitable foundation.

“I have a lot of admiration for Hillary Clinton, but she clearly is not trustworthy,” Fiorina said.

Her support

From the minute that August’s Republican under card debate in Cleveland ended, Fiorina was the consensus winner. Her poll numbers spiked and she and her supporters successfully lobbied CNN to expand the cast for the main stage of the second debate to eleven to include her. And, once again, even before it was over, Fiorina had emerged as the clear winner.

The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive has rocketed to second or third place in national polls with strong debate performances and vigorous attacks on front-runner Donald Trump. But her rapid rise also brings new scrutiny to her business background and her bare-bones campaign as she tries to sustain the momentum into the barrage of votes that begin in February.

The ascension from the “kids’ table” debate to the top tier of presidential contenders has already brought rewards. Fiorina has raked in new contributions and endorsements. Dozens of reporters record her every move. And crowds have followed, packing luncheons and town halls in early-voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina.

Fiorina connects with audiences with a mix of self-deprecating humor and sharp-elbowed jabs at the Obama administration.

She tells audiences of her rise from secretary to CEO, a journey she says began when two male colleagues challenged her to push herself to management. It was an often bumpy road. She was called a “token bimbo, ” she tells crowds to gasps. Her first business meeting, she says, was in a strip club. But it left her with an unforgettable lesson.

“The highest call of leadership is to unlock potentials in others, ” Fiorina said. “And I now believe that it’s time to unlock potential (of) others.”

Fiorina began a rise in the polls with her passionate attack on Planned Parenthood on Sept. 16, when she urged President Barack Obama, in vivid detail, to watch the undercover videos circulating of a meeting involving the organization.

“Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain, ” she said.

Abortion rights groups accuse Fiorina of misrepresenting the videos, but Fiorina continued to press the attack. In Spartanburg, she visited a Christian pregnancy center to thank doctors and nurses caring for patients, telling reporters that Democrats who spend time and resources “protecting fish, frogs and flies” are hypocrites for not also protecting the unborn.

At the GOP debate hosted by CNN, her most memorable line came when she was asked to respond to frontrunner Donald Trump’s insulting comments about her appearance. “Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” Trump was quoted as saying in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine. He later said he was referring to her “persona.”

Rather than expressing umbrage of her own, Fiorina replied levelly: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

Her critics

Her role as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard is squarely in the spotlight. She laid off about 30,000 workers during her tenure at the company, and attacks on her leadership at the tech firm helped tank her race for a California U.S. Senate seat in 2010.

Trump has led the charge, saying that the “company is a disaster and continues to be a disaster” and that her decision to merge Hewlett-Packard with Compaq was a “terrible deal, and it really led to the destruction of the company.”

Fiorina is reminded of that criticism even at campaign stops with largely friendly crowds. At a town hall event in Spartanburg, S.C. in September, Fiorina bristled when a man who worked for a local tech firm asked her about her stormy tenure, saying that Democrats and Trump were the only ones to question her time at Hewlett-Packard.

“My track record speaks for itself. I was recruited by the board of HP to save a company that was falling further and further behind, ” she said. “I led through the worst technology recession in years. Many of our strongest competitors literally disappeared. We saved 80,000 jobs.”