Meg Whitman
Who is Meg Whitman?
It all began when Margaret C. "Meg" Whitman was born on August 4, 1956. She grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Meg earned a Bachelor of Economics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. After she graduated in 1979, she received her first job at Procter and Gamble. She worked at Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati until 1981 pursuing brand management. She then obtained another job with a consulting firm called, Brain and Company. She worked her way up and eventually became Vice President during her 8 years there.
After that she then moved onto the Walt Disney Company and became the Senior Vice President of Marketing for the Disney Consumer Products Division. She was there from 1989 to 1992. But Meg’s adventures didn’t stop there. In 1992 she became the President of the Stride Rite Corporation’s Stride Rite Children’s Division. She was responsible for the launch of the highly successful Munchkin baby shoe line. Also, she repositioned the Stride Rite brand and the retail stores. Meg then held the position of the Executive Vice President for the Keds Division and also the Corporate Vice President for strategic planning.
Prior to eBay, Meg was general manager of Hasbro Inc.'s Preschool Division, responsible for global management and marketing of two of the world's best-known children's brands, Playskool and Mr. Potato Head. She oversaw the reorganization of the Preschool Division during her tenure. Then when she least expected it, she received an offer from eBay in March 1998. She took the position and has been there succeeding ever since.
Currently Meg Whitman is on the Board of Directors of Procter and Gamble and DreamWorks Animation. She is 51 years old and still the current President and CEO of eBay. She is worth 1.3 billion and she made her fortune all by herself. She is married and has two children. Also, she has recently donated $30 million to Princeton University to build Whitman College. “Whitman is a member of the University's executive and finance committees and head of the Princeton Women in Leadership Initiative” (Princeton). She has also donated to many political candidates, both Republican and Democratic.
Meg Whitman is an inspiring woman. Not only is she one of the top richest females in the world, and also Jewish. She has worked her way up to the top and made a name for herself. As for myself, I hope I can make it to the top one day just like Meg. Time States that Meg Whitman has set the standard for a new kind of CEO. Meg has created eBay into a fun company in the social discovery space. One of the lessons learned, is that you have to “you have to evolve your organization. You have to have the right people, in the right job, at the right time” (BusinessWeek). Hearing her say this finally makes me understand why Dr. Steele made us read the book, Good to Great. The same values are mentioned in that book, and it seems that after hearing this interview, Meg Whitman read this book as well.
BusinessWeek