About the Speakers
John Chambers
President & CEO
Cisco Systems
John Chambers promised the world that the Internet will change the way people will work, live, play, and learn when he became president and CEO of Cisco Systems in 1995. Since then, he has grown the company from $1.2 billion to $26.1 billion in annual revenues.
Prior to joining Cisco in 1991, Chambers spent eight years at Wang Laboratories and six years with IBM. Chambers holds a J.D. degree and B.S./B.A. degree in business from West Virginia University. He later received an MBA degree in finance and management from Indiana University.
Chambers was a member of former President Clinton's Committee for Trade Policy. In December 2000, George W. Bush’s transition team selected Chambers to serve on their Education Committee. In 1999 and 2000, Fortune listed Cisco as the third best place to work and the #4 most admired company in the America. ABC’s 20/20 featured Chambers as the best boss in America.
Carly Fiorina
Chairman, President and CEO
Hewlett-Packard Company
Carly Fiorina became president and CEO of Hewlett Packard, a $50 billion company, succeeding Lou Platt in July 1999, and was named chairman of the board in September 2000. She recently made the cover of Business Week (Feb. 19) for engineering an extensive management makeover "to unleash the vast talent and creativity within HP." Fortune (Feb. 5) called Fiorina a 'visionary' based on her World E-inclusion initiative designed to bridge the world technology divide with developing countries.
Prior to joining HP, Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent, where she spearheaded the Lucent's 1996 initial public offering and subsequent spin-off from AT&T, one of the largest and most successful IPOs ever. Before Lucent, she held several senior positions at AT&T.
Fiorina holds a BA in medieval history and philosophy from Stanford University; an MBA from the University of Maryland at College Park, and an MS from MIT's Sloan School. Fiorina was co-chair of the 2001 World Economic Summit at Davos, where she represented US business. For the third year in a row, Fiorina topped Fortune magazine's list of the most powerful women in American business.
