November 02, 2017
Carly Fiorina at Catholic University

The Busch School of Business and Economics welcomed Carly Fiorina to campus last month as part of its CEO Lecture Series. University President John Garvey described Fiorina — the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 Company — as “a voice for economic growth and effective leadership.”

Speaking to more than 350 faculty, staff, and students from different University schools on Oct. 24, Fiorina, a 2016 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, noted that “leadership is solving problems. Leadership is about producing results that make a positive difference.”

Fiorina, who served as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005, said that leadership encompasses four different characteristics: courage to challenge the status quo, character to know the difference between right and wrong, collaboration because “there is nothing worth doing in this life that can be done with one person acting alone,” and optimism.  

At the end of the lecture, Fiorina answered questions from students about the need for virtue in business, women in the workplace, and the ability to seek opportunity in the world.