????梅格?惠特曼正式成為惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）新任CEO。這可不是臨時的差事。惠特曼這次可是要真刀真槍地再大干一場。

????1999年，惠普董事會辭退了盧?普拉特，從朗訊科技公司（Lucent）挖來了卡莉?菲奧莉娜。之后，這家老牌硅谷公司的CEO雖如走馬燈般不停更換，但業績卻毫無起色。因此，惠特曼此次可謂重任在肩。

????菲奧莉娜是登上《財富》雜志最具影響力商界女性（Fortune Most Powerful Women，MPW）榜單榜首的第一人，并在1998年至2004年一直蟬聯榜首寶座。誰是從菲奧瑞納手中搶過MPW榜首桂冠的人？她就是時任eBay公司CEO的惠特曼。

????惠普董事會于2005年早些時候辭掉了菲奧莉娜，之后便陷入了與女性高管糾纏不休的怪圈。2006年，惠普公司董事長帕特麗夏?鄧恩被迫辭職。之后，接替菲奧莉娜出任CEO的馬克?赫德因與惠普公司一位女性顧問傳出桃色丑聞，而麻煩纏身。2010年，赫德離開惠普，來自商用軟件公司SAP的李艾科接管公司，大批女性進入惠普董事會，幫助李艾科收拾殘局。

????正是乘此東風，55歲的惠特曼成為惠普公司董事。當時，她剛剛走出競選加州州長失敗的陰影。據悉，過去幾個月里，惠普董事會對李艾科的糟糕表現進行了評估，惠特曼【同時也是寶潔公司（Procter & Gamble）董事】在其中扮演了重要的角色。去年春天，為了驗證自己在風險投資方面的能力，她成為凱鵬華盈投資公司（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）的兼職咨詢師。事實上，當時的惠特曼便已做好了走上前臺的準備。很顯然，惠普董事會之所以能就惠特曼上臺達成一致，惠普董事及凱鵬華盈合伙人雷?蘭恩，以及另外一位知名風險投資人馬克?安德森起到了關鍵作用。

????惠特曼能否勝任這份工作？未來這個問題仍將爭論不休。她在eBay擔任CEO期間，成功使這家初創公司進入《財富》500強（Fortune 500）；但在后期，她的表現卻不盡如人意。

????另外一個質疑是：惠特曼為什么愿意接受這個挑戰？筆者曾對惠特曼進行過長達數日的采訪（負責2004年與2009年，《財富》雜志關于惠特曼的封面報道）。她給筆者的感覺是：她是一名企業戰略專家和徹頭徹尾的經理人。在加入eBay之前，她曾供職于寶潔、迪士尼（Disney）和貝恩咨詢公司（Bain Consulting），這些經歷讓她得到了很好的歷練，使她樂于接受巨大的管理挑戰。而且，惠特曼曾經參加過過加州州長的角逐，規劃過自己的施政綱領，因此，對她來說，惠普帶來的挑戰并不那么可怕。

????如今，梅格?惠特曼已經成為加州第二大公司【僅次于雪佛龍公司（Chevron）】的掌門人。在卡莉離開六年之后，惠普再次成為《財富》500強公司中由女性掌管的規模最大的公司。

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Meg Whitman is the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). Not interim chief. This is Whitman's for-real next big gig.

????And it is big indeed, given that the storied Silicon Valley company has lurched from chief to chief to chief ever since the board, in 1999, eased out Lew Platt and recruited Carly Fiorina from Lucent (ALU).

????Fiorina was the first No. 1 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list, at the top from 1998 to 2004. Who grabbed the MPW crown from Fiorina? Whitman, when she was CEO of eBay (EBAY).

????H-P's board fired Fiorina in early 2005 and has had a thing about women since. In 2006 came the removal of HP board chair Pattie Dunn. Then Mark Hurd, Fiorina's CEO successor, got into trouble over his relationship with a female HP consultant. With Hurd's 2010 ouster came new chief Leo Apotheker from SAP (SAP)--and an influx of women to fill board seats and help clean up the mess.

????Whitman, 55, was one of those new HP directors, fresh off her defeat in the California governor race. I hear that Whitman, who is also on the Procter & Gamble (PG) board, was key during the past couple of months as the board assessed Apotheker's poor performance. Having taken a part-time gig at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers last spring, to test her venture-capital chops, Whitman was available to step up. And ready. Fellow HP board member--and Kleiner partner--Ray Lane and another well-known VC, Marc Andreessen, apparently were critical in getting consensus among the directors.

????Debate will rage about whether Whitman is right for the job. After building eBay from a startup to a Fortune 500 company, she stumbled toward the end of her CEO run.

????The other question: Why would Whitman take this very difficult job? Having spent many days with Whitman (reporting Fortune cover stories about her in 2004 and 2009), I have a sense: A corporate strategist and manager to the core, she was trained at P&G and Disney (DIS) and Bain Consulting, pre-eBay, and has long loved a giant management challenge. Also, having already gotten her head around the idea of running California, she probably didn't think the H-P challenge is as daunting as other execs might.

????So, now Meg Whitman is in charge of California's second-largest company--behind Chevron (CVX). And HP is, six years after Carly, once again the largest Fortune 500 company led by a woman.