In 1980, at age 25, Fiorina joined AT&T as a management trainee, selling telephone services to big federal agencies.
[31] In 1990, at age 35, she became the company's first female officer as senior vice president overseeing the company's hardware and systems division.
[32] By age 40, she was heading the North American operations.
[32][33]
In 1995, Fiorina led corporate operations for Lucent Technologies, Inc., a
spin-off from AT&T of its
Western Electric and
Bell Labs divisions into a new company.
[34] In that capacity, she reported to Lucent chief executive
Henry B. Schacht.
[35] She played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996
initial public offering of a successful stock and company launch strategy.
[32][36][37] The spin-off became one of the most successful IPOs in U.S. history, raising
US$3 billion.
[31][34]
Later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucent's consumer products sector.
[36] In 1997, she was named group president for Lucent's US$19 billion global service-provider business, overseeing marketing and sales for the company's largest customer segment.
[32][38] That year, Fiorina chaired a US$2.5 billion joint venture between Lucent's consumer communications and
Royal Philips Electronics, under the name
Philips Consumer Communications (PCC).
[39][40] In the October 12, 1998 edition of
Fortune magazine named Fiorina "The Most Powerful Woman in American Business".
[31]
Lucent added 22,000 jobs and revenues grew from US$19 billion to US$38 billion and the company's market share increased in every region for every product.
[34][41] According to Fortune magazine, was by lending money to their own customers to spur sales, writing that "In a neat bit of accounting magic, money from the loans began to appear on Lucent’s income statement as new revenue while the dicey debt got stashed on its balance sheet as an allegedly solid asset".
[41] Lucent's stock price grew 10-fold.
[41]
