Meg Whitman

Whitman holds an A.B. in economics from Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She began at the consulting firm Bain & Co., where her last position was vice president.⁠[1]

From May 1989 to October 1992 she worked at The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is a diversified worldwide entertainment company headquartered in Burbank, California, operating in three segments: Entertainment, Sports and Experiences.Open the full entry, most recently as senior vice president of marketing at Disney Consumer Products; from October 1992 to February 1995 she held positions at The Stride Rite Corporation including president of the Stride Rite Children’s Group and executive vice president of the Keds Division; from February 1995 to December 1997 she worked at the floral products company FTD, most recently as president, CEO and a director; and from January 1997 to February 1998 she was general manager of the Preschool Division of the toy company Hasbro.⁠[1]

Whitman became president and CEO of eBay in February 1998 and a director in March 1998; she was 42 when eBay issued its initial public offering prospectus on September 24, 1998.⁠[1]

In January 2008 eBay announced that Whitman would resign as president and CEO effective March 31, 2008, and that its board had named John Donahoe to succeed her.⁠[2]

In 2010 Whitman ran for governor of California as a Republican and lost to Democrat Jerry Brown.⁠[3]

Whitman took over Hewlett-Packard in 2011, when it was still a larger conglomerate. In 2015 Hewlett Packard Enterprise separated from HP Inc., its personal computer and printer sibling, and she continued as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.⁠[4]

On November 21, 2017, Whitman announced that she would step down as CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise after six years, to be succeeded on February 1 of the following year by its president, Antonio Neri. She said, “The next CEO needs to be a deeper technologist,” and said she would not join a competitor.⁠[4]

Whitman became CEO of NewTV, the mobile short-video startup founded by Jeffrey KatzenbergJeffrey KatzenbergJeffrey Katzenberg is an American film industry executive, producer, and investor, a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, former CEO of DreamWorks Animation, and a founding partner of WndrCo.Open the full entry that was later renamed Quibi. In August 2018 Katzenberg’s holding company WndrCo announced that NewTV had closed $1 billion in funding from investors including several Hollywood studios and Alibaba.⁠[5]

On October 21, 2020, Quibi announced that it would wind down operations and seek to sell its assets about six months after launch. The service had launched on April 6 that year, offering episodes of 10 minutes or less for mobile phones, and was backed by about $1.8 billion from Hollywood studios and other investors. In a letter to employees, Katzenberg and Whitman wrote, “Our failure was not for lack of trying; we've considered and exhausted every option available to us.”⁠[6]

On December 8, 2018, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: On Marrying Entertainment and Technology” on its website. Based on a discussion at the annual a16z Summit, it featured Marc AndreessenMarc AndreessenMarc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While in college he helped develop the graphical web browser Mosaic, then co-founded Netscape and Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), and has long served as a director of Meta; he has also published essays such as “Why Software Is Eating the World.”Open the full entry interviewing Jeffrey Katzenberg, former CEO and co-founder of DreamWorks SKG and co-founder of WndrCo, and Whitman, then CEO of Quibi. The episode was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[7][8]

The show notes say that Katzenberg and Whitman had known each other for years but came from two different worlds, entertainment and software, and the two discussed how those worlds were merging, both through Quibi and through fundamental shifts in the entertainment and media landscape.⁠[7]

On December 8, 2021, President Joe Biden announced Whitman’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to Kenya. The White House described her at the time as a board member of Procter & GambleProcter & GambleThe Procter & Gamble Company is a multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Open the full entry and General MotorsGeneral MotorsGeneral Motors Company is a Detroit-based American automaker selling Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles; the current company was incorporated in Delaware in 2009.Open the full entry and national board chair of Teach for America, and noted her honorary doctorate from Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It grew out of the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded with funding from Andrew Carnegie in 1900, which were renamed the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912 and took the present name after merging with the Mellon Institute in 1967. The university is known for computer science, robotics, engineering, and the arts, and has campuses in Qatar, Silicon Valley, and Rwanda. As of September 2025, it enrolled 16,582 students. Its current president is Farnam Jahanian. On September 30, 2026, the university announced a $3 billion gift from Ken Griffin and plans to build a new campus in Miami.Open the full entry.⁠[9]

Whitman arrived in Kenya as the country prepared for its 2022 elections; she was the second woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to Kenya, succeeding Kyle McCarter.⁠[10][11]

On November 13, 2024, Whitman announced that she had submitted her resignation to outgoing President Biden, with Chargé d’Affaires Marc Dillard to lead the embassy. In her statement she cited trade, health and security agreements, including Kenya’s designation as a major non-NATO ally, and wrote, “I will depart Kenya full of gratitude for the team that has worked tirelessly on my behalf.” Critics had faulted her for not speaking out sooner on abuses including abductions and disappearances.⁠[11][10]

X: Public account: https://x.com/MegWhitman (opens in a new window).⁠[8]