Carly Fiorina
Company: Carly Fiorina Enterprises
Home: Los Altos Hills
By becoming CEO of computer giant Hewlett Packard in 1999, Carly Fiorina smashed the glass ceiling. She held the position for seven years. Before joining HP, Fiorina was an executive vice president at AT&T, where she orchestrated the spinoff and initial public offering of Lucent, which until then was the most successful IPO in United States history. At HP in 2002, Fiorina completed a controversial merger with rival Compaq, and, in 2005, she suffered a public ousting from HP. Fiorina then took a break from public life, launching a charity and writing a memoir called Tough Choices in 2006. But she was back in the limelight during the U.S. presidential campaign, stumping for Sen. John McCain.
Alexandra Hall
Company: Airship Ventures
Home: Los Gatos
Hall has been in the aerospace industry for 18 years, but it doesn’t get much cooler than launching your own zeppelin company. She co-founded Airship Ventures, the first firm to offer public blimp rides (for around $500 per hour), with her husband Brian Hall in 2008 with $8 million in funding. Their customers can see the Bay Area from a few hundred feet up in a quiet, luxury environment. The 246-foot “Eureka” blimp is one of only three in operation in the world, and it’s the largest. Hall spent six years at the U.K.’s National Space Center, and came to California to become executive director and CEO of the Chabot Space & Science Center. A former science TV host for the BBC, Hall also sits on the board of Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos.
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