Keynote Speakers
Carly Fiorina
While she is perhaps best known as the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), what is not as well known is Carly is a self-made woman. She started her business career as a secretary at a small business and went on to become the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company.
Carly served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) from 1999 to 2005, leading the reinvention of the legendary company, successfully steering it through the dot-com bust and the worst technology recession in 25 years. She led the controversial merger with Compaq Computer positioning HP to become the first $100 billion information technology company. Her career includes more than 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies.
Today she is politically active and has championed free enterprise, private sector job creation, economic growth and fiscal conservatism. She is the newly named Vice Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee focused on restoring a Republican majority in the Senate. She has served as Republican Victory Chair supporting John McCain’s presidential run. She most recently challenged four-term California Senator Barbara Boxer in her own first time political candidacy.
Carly is one of the most recognized business leaders in the world and an opinion leader who champions competitiveness and innovation, as well as philanthropic and civic initiatives that support economic growth and individual empowerment. She serves on the Board of the Foundation for Health Coverage Education. She is on the Leadership Council of the Initiative for Global Development and is a founding supporter of the African Leadership Academy and The One Woman Initiative. She has also served on the Board of Business Executives for National Security, the Defense Business Board, the CIA’s External Advisory Board, and the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State under the Bush Administration. As a cancer survivor who openly tells her story, she is a Global Envoy for Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG organization.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford, an MBA from the University of Maryland, and her Masters of Science in Business from MIT. She and her husband Frank live in Virginia and California. They have a daughter and two granddaughters.
Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA
Dr. Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA is the 18th Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service. As America’s Doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve individual health and the health of the nation. Dr. Benjamin also oversees the operational command of 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote, protect, and advance the health of the American people.
Dr. Benjamin is founder and former CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile, and past Chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States. In 1995 she became the first physician under age 40 and the first African- American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.
Dr. Benjamin has a B.S. in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans, an M.D. degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an MBA from Tulane University. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency in Macon, Ga. Dr. Benjamin holds 15 honorary degrees.
Dr. Benjamin will share some of the challenges facing consumers of health services in the United States today and discuss some of the specific initiatives currently in place: childhood obesity prevention, national support of breast feeding, reduction of tobacco use, and her own vision for a healthy and fit nation.