SAN FRANCISCO – Carly Fiorina (search), the ousted CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and once the most powerful woman in business, who went from secretary to head of the world's No. 2 computer maker, is writing a book.
Fiorina's as-yet-untitled memoir will include her views on what makes a leader, how women can thrive in business and how technology will continue to reshape our world, said the Portfolio imprint at publisher Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
She left Hewlett-Packard, which she led between 1999 and 2005, in February after disagreeing with the board over how to run the company and failing to produce promised results.
"This is the first time that readers will be able to meet the real Carly Fiorina — how she thinks, what she believes, what she's experienced and what she's learned," said Adrian Zackheim, founder and publisher of Portfolio.
Before HP, Fiorina spent nearly 20 years at AT&T (T) and Lucent Technologies (LU), where she held a number of senior leadership roles and directed Lucent's initial public offering and subsequent spin-off from AT&T.
She worked briefly as a secretary at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company she would ultimately lead when she was an undergraduate student at nearby Stanford University, from which she graduated.
World rights were bought by Zackheim from Williams & Connolly, which represented Fiorina, Portfolio said, adding that it expects to publish the book in the fall of 2006.
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