New US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has arrived in Nairobi for her duty.
Meg Whitman, who is a billionaire entrepreneur, was confirmed in a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate as the eighteenth United States Ambassador to Kenya on July 14, 2022.
She is worth an astonishing Sh. 389.4 billion according to Forbes. This is the equivalent of a real time net worth of $3.3 billion.
Ambassador Whitman has significant experience leading business organizations, from start-ups to large multinational companies in Silicon Valley. She has served as the President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Hewlett-Packard Company, both multinational information technology companies. She also served as President and CEO of eBay Inc., an online marketplace and digital payments company.
Ms. Whitman has also been a member of a number of corporate boards of directors, including Procter & Gamble and General Motors.
Committed to equality in education and protection of the environment, Ambassador Whitman has been National Board Chair of Teach For America and has been a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Nature Conservancy.
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Ambassador Whitman is married to Dr. Griffith Harsh, a neurosurgeon. They have two grown sons and two grandchildren.
Whitman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB in Economics from Princeton University.
Takeaways on Meg Whitman:
- Meg Whitman is best known for taking eBay from $5.7 million to $8 billion in sales as CEO from 1998 to 2008.
- She was CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 2011 to 2015, where she oversaw its split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
- She stepped down as HPE’s chief executive in February 2018. She sits on the boards of Procter & Gamble and General Motors.
- Whitman was CEO of the defunct short form video platform Quibi, which shuttered in October 2020, just seven months after it launched.
