Carly Fiorina 2016: 7 Facts About Personal Life of Potential GOP Presidential Hopeful

Carly Fiorina may aspire to take the Oval Office in 2016, but prior to her political life, she was a successful businesswoman and corporate leader.

Here are seven facts you may not know about the life of potential 2016 GOP hopeful Carly Fiorina:

1. Fiorina started out as a secretary for Kelly Services and later became a receptionist, bouncing around jobs for a time. In 1980, she eventually got her shot in executive leadership as a management trainee at AT&T and later became senior vice president. Under her guidance, AT&T’s spinoff, Lucent, became “one of the most successful IPOs in United States history, raising $3 billion,” according to Biography.com.

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2. Carly Fiorina was born Cara Carleton Sneed. She changed her name in 1985 when she married AT&T executive Frank Fiorina, according to Notable Biographies. Her name connected to her family history, the website said, specifically to male members of the Sneed family named Carleton who died in the Civil War. Each generation after, someone was named for them — Carleton if it was a boy and Cara Carleton if it was a girl. 

3. In 1998, Fortune named her the "Most Powerful Woman In Business." The magazine said, “A supersaleswoman whose star turn was selling Lucent to investors: She led the biggest IPO in U.S. history. Today Fiorina runs the highly profitable core business of the largest telecom equipment company in the world. Her division's sales this year: about $19 billion. Wall Street adores her, and she's on track to eventually run Lucent.” She would hold the No. 1 spot on the list of 50 women for six consecutive years.

4. She was America's first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company, heading up Hewlett Packard from 1999 to 2005, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

5. In 2005, Fiorina was booted by Hewlett Packard's board of directors due to the company's floundering performance.

6. In 2007, she wrote a best-selling memoir, "Tough Choices," where she discussed her early life and praises her parents, who both came from humble beginnings and believed hard work paid off, for paving the way and providing a solid foundation.

7. In February 2009, Fiorina was diagnosed with breast cancer and has since made a full recovery, according to Everyday Health. 

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