By Dawn Levy

Stanford News Servcie

Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co. and a 1976 graduate of Stanford, has been chosen to deliver this year’s commencement address, June 17. Stanford’s four senior class presidents in consultation with President John Hennessy selected Fiorina to address a generation whose lives have been changed and challenged by technology as never before.

“As a Stanford history major and the current CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world, she embodies the best of this institution,” said Delphine Tuot, a senior class president and major in biological sciences who will graduate with honors this June. “Ms. Fiorina is the ideal candidate to discuss the journey by which one learns how to be true to oneself.”

Hennessy described Fiorina as “a humanist who has risen to great prominence within the technology industry” and called HP “a company at the heart of the Stanford family.

“We truly are honored that Carly Fiorina has accepted our invitation to speak at Stanford’s 110th commencement,” he said. “Her life experiences will be a source of inspiration to our graduating students, their parents and the faculty.”

On July 17, 1999, Fiorina became president and chief executive officer of HP, the largest consumer information technology company and the second largest technology firm in the world. A week later, she was elected to the company’s board of directors, and last September, she was named chairwoman of the board.

Fiorina began her career as a salesperson for AT&T and spent nearly 20 years with AT&T and Lucent Technologies.

Fiorina holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford, a master’s degree in business administration from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland at College Park and a Master of Science degree from MIT’s Sloan School.