Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina's rise up the ranks

By most accounts, Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina conquered the party's candidates' debate Wednesday night.

She argued her points clearly and decisively, and managed to take Donald Trump down a notch or two a task no one else seems capable of, despite the tangerine-hued businessman's tendency for hyperbole.

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CBC's Meagan Fitzpatrick described Fiorina as "steady, sternand no-nonsense"during the debate.

She similarly did well at the Aug. 6 Republican debate, even though she was relegated to the "kid's table."

But who exactly is Carly Fiorina?

'Obliterated'glass ceiling

Fiorina, born in Austin, Texas, has a bachelor of arts from Stanford, an MBAfrom the University of Marylandand a master's degreein management from MIT.

In 1980, she took an entry-level job at AT&T. In 15 years, she worked her way up to eventually lead the company's North American operations. After AT&T, she led a spinoff company called Lucent Technologies, which under her leadership had one of the most successful IPOs in history in 1996.

Her work at AT&T and Lucent garnered accolades, with Fortune magazine calling her the most powerful woman in American business in 1998.

She was then hired as the chief executive officer at Hewlett-Packard in 1999, becomingthe company's first female CEO.

As Fortune'sMatthew Boyle wrote in 2007, "Carly Fiorina didn't just break the glass ceiling, she obliterated it."

Over the years, she continued to rack up praise:

• 2003 Fortune's most powerful woman in business,a title she held for five years.
• 2004 Time's listof the 100most influential people in the world.
• 2004 Forbes's list of the100 most powerful women.

Controversy at HP

Her tenure at HP was controversial from the start. Some at the company questioned the hiring of a CEO without prior experience as a chief executive, while others hoped she would shake things up.

She oversaw the company's merger with Compaq, which was then the second-largest manufacturer of personal computers after Dell. The merger was followed by massive layoffs,falling revenues and a declining stock price.

Fiorina was fired in 2005. Gone were her previous shining titles;she has since been named one of the worst American CEOs of all time. But she claims she was ousted for political, not performance,reasons.

Some analysts have criticized Fiorina for creating the problems at HP, while others such as Huffington Post'sBen Rosen have said that in the longrun, the merger with Compaq was the right thing to do.

Over the past few years, Fiorina has run several non-profit organizations. She currently leads Good360, which is one of the biggest charities in the U.S.

Political aspirations

Fiorina started in politics as an adviser to John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign. After surviving cancer, she ran for a Senate spot in California in 2010, but lost to Democrat Barbara Boxer. She announced her plans to run as the Republican presidential candidate in May 2015.

Fiorina has staunch, traditional Republican values when it comes to abortionand taxation, but she is somewhat liberal on some issues, such as same-sex marriage, immigration reform and drug laws.

As for governmental regulation, Fiorina has said Uncle Sam should be more hands-off with respect to climate change, although she acknowledges the scientific evidence strongly proves it exists.

She doesn't support the legalization of marijuana, but she said she thinks it's up to individual states to decide what works best for them. She's supported same-sex marriage in the past, but has been less clear on the topic recently, saying again that she thinks individual states should decide what's best.

On international issues, she has said the U.S. needs stronger border security with Mexico. She has been critical of the Iran nuclear deal, and has come out swinging against Russia over its involvement in Ukraine. She has said her business acumen will help her negotiate on the world stage.

Fiorinais alsoseen as a foil to Democratic candidateHillary Clinton. On herwebsite, she repeatedly refers to herself as a "citizen leader," criticizing career politicians. This can be seen as a direct challenge to Clinton, who has been in the halls of power for decades.

Also, because she is a woman, some say Fiorina can attack Clinton without being labelled sexist.

All of this may give Fiorina momentum heading into the next Republican debate,scheduled for the end of October.According to an average of U.S. polls compiled by RealClearPolitics,she's nowin fourth place overall in party race behind Trump, brain surgeonBen Carson and Ohio Gov.JohnKasich.