Meg Whitman Net Worth, Early Life, Professional Career, Politics, Awards, Board, Husband and Charity

The political activist and donor, Meg Whitman net worth accelerated as she became a high ranked business executive and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Synopsis

Born in 1956, Meg Whitman has served in The Walt Disney Company as Vice President of Strategic Planning during 1980s. Similarly, the Princeton graduate Meg Whitman net worth rose as she served for a number of notable companies like DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble and Hasbro. Meg Whitman net worth increased as she became the president and CEO of eBay. Later, she ran the candidacy for Governor of California.

Early Life and Education

Meg Whitman was born Margaret Cushing Whitman on August 4 1956 in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. She was born as the youngest of three children of Hendricks Hallett Whitman, Jr. and Margaret Cushing. Her father worked on Wall Street while her mother was a homemaker.

From the very early days, Whitman was a bright and confident child. Therefore, it was no surprising enough when she graduated from high school in just three years. She then joined Princeton University where she graduated with bachelor’s degree in economics. Her intelligence guided her to Harvard Business School from where she earned her MBA degree in 1979.

Professional Career Highlights

Meg Whitman net worth increased as she started working as branch manager at renowned company Procter & Gamble in 1979. She was in Cincinnati, Ohio for the position from where she moved to San Francisco to work as a consultant at Bain & Company. Her high capacity led to rise in her rank to senior vice president.

Later, she served as vice president of strategic planning at The Walt Disney Company joining in 1989. A couple of years later, she joined Stride Rite Corporation. Soon, she became the president and CEO of Florists’ Transworld Delivery in 1995.

Whitman’s work history is vast from where she collected number of experiences. She worked at Playskool Division General Manager at Hasbro. During this position starting from 1997, Whitman looked after global management and marketing of 2 children’s brands.

In 1998, she modified her position as she joined eBay as CEO in Silicon Valley. One of the notable works that Whitman did during her tenure at the company was raising annual revenue and employees. Meg Whitman net worth rose with the success of eBay. The revenue grew from $4 million to $8 billion and the employees grew from 30 to 15,000 during her time as the CEO of the company. Nevertheless, her actions still attracted some critics. They questioned about her decisions like 2005 purchase of Skype for overvalued amount of $2.5 billion.

In mid-2011, Meg Whitman net worth rose as she became the CEO of Hewlett Packard. However, her predecessor considered discarding her decision to retain and recommit firm to PC business. As a result, Bloomberg L.P. named her “Most Underachieving CEO” in 2013 for turning stocks in worst numbers. Whitman stepped down from her position as Chairwoman of HP’s board in directors in 2017 and fought the rumors.

Serving as Board

In 2007, Whitman resigned from her position as CEO and made way for her successor John Donahoe. However, she remained on the board and served until late-2008 as an advisor to the new CEO.

Similarly, Meg Whitman net worth also increased as she served on the board of directors of the Summit Public School, P&G and DreamWorks SKG. She stayed board of director for Goldman Sachs for a year; but resigned due to controversy.

In 2011, Whitman joined as a part-time special adviser at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Additionally, she has served on boards of Zipcar, Survey Monkey and Teach for America.

Recognition and Awards

Her amazing work at eBay attracted a number of awards and accolades. Fortune magazine ranked her among top five most powerful women for more than once. Similarly, Harvard Business Review ranked her eighth in best performing CEO of the past decade. In addition, Financial Times ranked her among 50 faces that shaped the decade.

Political Career Highlights

In 2009, Whitman announced that she will be running for Governor of California. The conservative Republican gathered enough supporters who believed that California would be benefitted from her business background.

She had the family background of politicians and an experience of serving as an advisor to John McCain during his 2008 presidential run. The whole campaign cost her some $175 million which could be enough to win Republican nomination. However, it was not enough to defeat former Governor of California, Jerry Brown.

In addition, Whitman showed her inexperience in campaign as a candidate, revealing only little information to voters. One of the incidents that pulled her down was the controversy of her former housekeeper. Her housekeeper said Whitman fired her after 9 years of service in addition to calling Whitman an illegal immigrant.

The series of such events impacted her greatly. Consequently, she lost the election. After this, she realized her demand was in the world of business rather than politics.

Personal Life and Husband

Meg Whitman married a neurosurgeon, Griffith Harsh IV. Harsh works at Stanford University Medical Center. Whitman and Harsh have two sons. Since their marriage in March of 1998, the couple has resided in Atherton, California. The Whitman College at Princeton University was established in 2007. The residential college was named after Meg Whitman after she donated $30 million. This tribute also increased Meg Whitman net worth.

Charity and Net Worth

Meg Whitman net worth increased because of her success in business, but she has also utilized her money in making the world a better place. Whitman and Harsh founded a charity organization in 2006 and donated it 300000 shares of eBay. The shares were worth $9.4 million. Towards the end of the organization’s first year, it had assets worth of $46 million and has disbursed $125000 to charitable causes. The charity mostly went to Environment Defense Fund. Similarly, it donated $2.5 million to Summit Public School in 2011.

The intelligent and sharp business executive has accumulated huge net worth through her remarkable roles and positions in renowned companies. Meg Whitman net worth, as per the recent calculation, is $2.7 billion.