But the luck will smile to Pierre Omidyar

Meg Whitman has been the dedication in October 2004. In its annual "50 most powerful business world's women", the American magazine "Fortune" announcement that the CEO ("chief executive officer", the equivalent, in bulk, a President of the Executive Board) eBay took the head of the ranking, ahead of Carly Fiorina, the iconic "boss", for a few months yet, Hewlett-Packard, and Andrea Jung, President of the Avon Products. A title, says "Fortune", just reward the extraordinary work of Meg Whitman who, within a few years, "has built the most important site of e-commerce in the world, the most valued of the Internet and marks the company with the highest growth of history". In fact, the results obtained by Meg Whitman are impressive: when she takes the leadership of eBay in 1998, the company has a turnover of $ 4 million, employs 150 people and is visited by 6 or 7 million people. Ten years later, his departure, eBay displays a turnover of $ 8 billion, 65 million users, is present in a large part of the world and employs more than 9,000 people. Under his leadership, sales and profits of the company was multiplied by two each year. Performance which have not started the legendary modesty of Meg Whitman. The leader of eBay displays in effect low profile in all circumstances. To private jets, she prefers commercial flights to meet the first auction in the world Internet site users. When flying, it invariably scores a hit eBay logo t-shirt and dialogue in all simplicity with everyone, carefully gathering opinions and suggestions from regulars of the site. Thrown every morning at 6 a.m., present in his Office at 8 h 30 - after breakfast in family - she spends every day an hour to respond to customer emails. At the headquarters of the company, in San Jose (California), his Office is open to all and there is no specific sign, the collection of figurines and small figures for children, memories of his past professional experiences.

Meg Whitman could certainly claim to infinitely most prestigious leadership positions, she once dreamed of Disney and who was also approached early in the year 2005, to replace Michael Eisner, victim of the frond of its shareholders, at the head of the entertainment giant. She refused, preferring to continue his mission at the head of eBay, a company where, says, "it feels good and where there is still much to do."

Reputation of "as" of marketing

Born in 1956 in Long Island, New York, last child of a family that has three, Meg Whitman grew up in a difficult environment, between capital-investor father and a mother homemaker who will teach him to "take their destiny in hand and do what she wants of its existence." Brilliant, very sport - student plays hockey, tennis and basketball-, Meg was educated at Princeton University. After having considered to be a physician or physicist, she decides finally to the economy and graduated in 1977. The following year, she earned an MBA from Harvard University. Its promotion is particularly brilliant which has, among other celebrities, Elaine Chao, future Secretary of State for labour, Gary Marshall, future pattern of PepsiCo, Ronald Sargent, future CEO of Staples, and John Thain, future boss of the New York Stock Exchange and Merrill Lynch. It is also at Harvard she met her future husband, Griffith Harsh, a brilliant neurosurgeon who will give him two sons.

At the end of the 1970s, finding a job is not very difficult for a young woman enswathed degrees. Hired in Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati in 1979, she learns the management of trademarks. Three years later, in 1981, she enters the firm of Bain & Company of San Francisco Council, which she quickly becomes Vice-President before joining, in 1989, Walt Disney. Appointed Vice-President in charge of marketing, she also heads the "consumer products" division of the company. This position, she plays a critical role in the development of derived products, refining its trademark specialist profile and consumer markets. Procter & Gamble, Bain & Company, Disney. In ten years, Meg Whitman has already held positions in three of the most important firms of the United States and moved three times.

In 1992, new change! That year, her husband is indeed appointed to the prestigious Massachusetts Hospital in Boston. Meg Whitman, who has always maintained that his family life was before everything else, decides to follow the East Coast. Listed at this time among the managers the most to the United States, she was then recruited by the Board of Directors of the manufacturer of shoes Stride Rite which entrusted the leadership of the group. It will remain three years in this position, time to successfully launch a new line of baby shoes and to reorganize the network of company stores, before accepting a new offers, this time in the Group Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD), the largest producer in the world of floral products. What is initially an association owned by a group of florists, it makes a very capitalist business. It is also during its passage in FTD that she rubs for the first time to the Internet, creating and developing a site destined for the American Florists online sales. Strong of its results, Meg Whitman is then hired, in 1997, to take charge of the preschool division of Hasbro toy manufacturer, which she fully reviews the marketing and positioning. Six positions in less than twenty years... A top all the more impressive that Meg Whitman has not committed a single misstep. Capitalism mercenary, as it says sometimes a little fast on this side of the Atlantic Rather

a normal career, saw the United States, where the boards of Directors, the real holders of power in companies, do not hesitate to change very often patterns and where accumulation of experiences is quite common for the "great managers". At the end of 1997, Tan of its success and a flattering reputation "as" of marketing, Meg Whitman is in any case among elite American patterns. It is also for this reason that Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, decided to call it for him given the keys to his company...

The first auction worldwide site

Back two years earlier, in 1995. Franco-Iranien born in 1967 in Paris, Pierre Omidyar moved in 1990 to the United States, San Francisco, where he worked for the Publisher of software Claris, a subsidiary of Apple, before joining General Magic Internet telephony company. Privileged witness of the rise of new technologies of the information in the Silicon Valley, Pierre Omidyar is particularly struck by the development of forums devoted to the sale and purchase of computer equipment. It is they who give the idea of creating an online auction site in September 1995. AuctionWeb is born which, in 1996, will take the name of eBay - for Electronic Bay, in reference to the San Francisco Bay. The story is that Pierre Omidyar has mounted its site to meet a whim of his wife, Pam. Collector of PEZ, these small confectionery distributors in the form of cartoon characters, it complained to find no place to Exchange objects. In fact, eBay offers at the outset a multitude of products, from cars to cameras through computers, collectibles and all the small "upsets" of daily life. In the space of three months, the site traffic is multiplied by ten, forcing Pierre Omidyar to invest in equipment, to hire staff and, above all, to impose a 5 commission on all transactions.

Worn by the "boom" of the Internet, eBay was a smash success. Between 1997 and 1998, its turnover rose by 20 per month. At the same time, the number of employees increased 6 to 150. In 1997, Pierre Omidyar takes a new step in transforming what is previously that a simple passive hub of trade in a formidable machine to analyze and dissect the behaviour of Internet users: tools for rating confidence of vendors and buyers, methodical classification of products, detection of new classes of objects... eBay put on his image of community at the service of the individual King. Established initially simply to link buyers and sellers, the company became a very profitable business... At the end of 1997, Pierre Omidyar is located at the crossroads. To continue to grow, eBay has a need of about 10 million, which implies to enter stock market. A chore for the young boss who feels no taste to follow the "road shows". With his partner Jeff Skoll, it decided to appeal to a "size". This is in scene Meg Whitman.

Contacted early in the year 1998 by Pierre Omidyar, it is not very hot to leave Hasbro and embark on the adventure eBay initially. Captured by her duties, she is often away from his family and has no desire to move again and moving, only in California. But the luck will smile to Pierre Omidyar. In early 1998, the husband of Meg was indeed offered a position at Stanford University in California. More now is nothing in that she accepts the proposal of the young French pattern. Meg Whitman takes orders from the company in the spring of 1998. The time is not really well chosen! Internet stock then know a blow to the Blues and the entry in the stock market is bad. Conducted in September 1998, is yet a success, largely thanks to the fame of the new CEO. Result: the action of the auction site flaming literally, multiplying its value by 25 in six months! But for Meg Whitman, it is only a first step. His view, the priority should be given to the development of the site, not only in the United States but around the world. At this site, it is attacking at the end of the year 1998, introducing eBay 56 American cities, and then in England, in Germany, the Japan, in China, South Korea and in India... Conducted in way of support, internationalization is the first auction site eBay in the world. Attentive to the mark, Meg Whitman also tightened the ties that bind the company with the community of buyers and sellers and improves the security of the site, including purchasing PayPal online payment site.

A new career in politics

Since his appointment, Meg Whitman has experienced only a warning, the massive blackout occurred in 1999 and that, twenty-four hours, completely paralyzes eBay. During this crisis, she spent four days and three nights at his Office, helping teams to deliver the system, taking advantage of the opportunity to review substantive in fills the tools of the company. A "cross" which contributes to increase its domestic legitimacy and which earned him the recognition without bounds of Pierre Omidyar. In March 2008, considering having completed its mission at the head of eBay, Meg Whitman leaves office to begin a new career in politics this time. Moderate Republican, she now is campaigning to succeed to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose second term ends in November 2010, and maintain the State in the Republican camp. At the age of fifty-four, Meg leads this new fight with the same energy that she has made to develop eBay. For the primary only Republican, it has already met the record sum of $ 80 million. One success which announces probably others...

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