Silicon Valley’s longest-serving chief executive thinks Carly Fiorina would make “a great president” despite her lack of political experience.
Ray Zinn, who recently resigned from the California-based semiconductor company Micrel after 37 years as CEO, told the Washington Examiner Thursday that Fiorina exudes confidence and would make a fine commander-in-chief “if she brings herself to that point.”
“I like Carly Fiorina. I think she’s a very bright, very confident business person [and] I think she would make a great president,” Zinn told the Examiner.
From one former Silicon Valley CEO to another, Zinn says Fiorina is “very capable” and “more dignified” than some of her Republican rivals.
“She’s also smart and I think she’s a good negotiator — she’s a target negotiator,” he added.
Though Zinn has yet to formally endorse any candidate — Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz are among his favorites — the self-described conservative is looking for someone who is focused more on the country’s economic woes than often divisive social issues.
“I want to see economic growth of about 4 percent,” he told the Examiner. “And if we’re going to grow [the economy] at 4 percent or better, than we need somebody who’s going to focus on the economy.”
Fiorina could fit the bill, according to Zinn. “She definitely understands technology… and how it relates to the overall U.S. economy.”
The flattering remarks about Fiorina from the Silicon Valley vet come less than a week after the GOP hopeful’s successor, Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, said her decision not to back Fiorina hinged on her not “having worked in government.”
“I think it’s very difficult for your first role in politics to be president of the United States, and so I think having experience in either the Senate or as the governor of a state is really important,” Whitman told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Sunday.
Fiorina, who ran unsuccessfully for California’s Senate seat in 2010 and led HP for nearly six years, has previously said her lack of experience in the political arena doesn’t make her “a neophyte.”
One of the biggest hurdles Fiorina has had to overcome during her bid for the White House has been defending her record as the head of HP after thousands of employees were let go during her tenure before she herself was fired.
“She’s getting a bad rap, but you have to look at what she was facing at the time when she acquired Compaq,” Zinn said Thursday.
“Here’s the way I look at it — tech cycles last about five years, and when you go to develop a product, you have to look at the next cycle,” he said. “That takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of wisdom.”
“Carly didn’t win because that was a big bat and it didn’t work out, but that doesn’t mean she was a bad CEO or a bad technologist. Just like any other coach of a team that doesn’t bring home the tenant or the cup is fired, you can be a super coach and still get canned,” he added in Fiorina’s defense.
