Whitman has spent decades in high-level corporate roles, taking eBay from $5.7 million to $8 billion in sales as CEO from 1998 to 2008. She then served as CEO at Hewlett-Packard from 2011 to 2015, where she oversaw its split into HP Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Alongside her corporate roles, Whitman has been politically active for many years. In 2010, she secured the Republican nomination in California’s governor’s race, though lost to Democratic nominee Jerry Brown.
Whitman campaigned with Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, then backed Democrat Hillary Clinton and Biden in the 2016 and 2020 elections against former US President Donald Trump.
Whitman now joins a long line of billionaires who have served as ambassadors or in presidential cabinets. Under Reagan, Estée Lauder heir Ronald Lauder served as the US ambassador to Austria, while Hyatt Hotels heir Penny Pritzker served as the Secretary of Commerce under former President Barack Obama.
Forbes estimates Whitman’s real-time net worth to stand at $5 billion.
