Carly Fiorina: 5 things you should know

Fiorina announced her White House ambitions on Monday

(Getty Images)

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina announced her presidency campaign Monday morning on Good Morning America and via her Twitter account.

“Yes, I am running for president,” Mrs Fiorina told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. “I think I am the best person for the job.”

Mrs Fiorina’s joins the overcrowded 2016 Republican presidential field as her announcement comes one day after Ben Carson accidentally announced his candidacy in a pre-interview. She once served as an advisor for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010, she ran for the U.S. Senate from California, eventually losing to Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

Here are five more things to know about Mrs Fiorina:

1. She's a law school dropout.

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Stanford University (a Bachelor’s in medieval history and philosophy) Mrs Fiorina attended University of California, Los Angeles School of Law but dropped out after only a semester. She went on to acquire Master of Business Administration in marketing from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and Master of Science in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School.

2. She was one of the most powerful women in corporate America.

Mrs Fiorina is widely known as the first female chief executive to lead a Fortune 20 company. She was later pushed out after a boardroom struggle in 2005. After she helped engineer a highly criticized merger with Compaq, large layoffs ensued and the company's stock price dropped more than 50 percent ($39.75 in 1999 to $23.32 in 2005) during her tenure.

3. She’s married to a former tow truck driver.

4. She’s never held elected office or served in a Cabinet position.

What Mrs Fiorina lacks in formal experience, she makes up with a business tenure and relationships with worldwide contacts during her time at HP. After her departure, former CIA Director Michael Hayden selected Mrs Fiorina to chair the CIA's External Advisory Board. In 2007, she warned Mr Hayden that his spy agency would need to adapt to the public’s expectations of transparency.

“She contributed a great deal,” Mr Hayden told CNN of confidential meetings. “It confirmed for me what I thought was a coming crisis. It helped me with my judgment.”

5. And she’s already attracted plenty of haters.

Mrs Fiorina’s public campaign website is carlyforpresident.com but someone has purchased the domain for carlyfiorina.org. The anonymous owners have posted more than 30,000 sad faces representing all the workers she laid of at HP. They question what she would have done differently, then quote her 2005 Forbes profile, Mrs Fiorina addressed the layoffs:

“I would have done them all faster. Every person that I've asked to leave, whether it's been clear publicly or not, I would have done faster.”