Jon Swartz

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Carly Fiorina, U.S. spy chief?

The evolution from tech CEO to presidential hopeful to possible director of national intelligence — an appointment floated Monday by the New York Times, which quoted an unnamed Trump transition team member saying she's under consideration for the role — reflects Fiorina's dogged pursuit of political superlatives.

Fiorina and Trump had a "positive and productive meeting" on "issues ranging from America's strategic interests and national security challenges abroad to the geopolitical climate across the world and in China," Fiorina spokesman Frank Sadler said in an email to USA TODAY.

A Trump representatives was unavailable for comment.

Even as Hewlett Packard CEO in the early 2000s, Fiorina was a natural politician with a gift for public speaking and an eye on higher office.

She unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and again as the Republican nominee for president this year.

Now, she may be in line for a spot in the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, the former rival who publicly ridiculed her appearance and whom she asked to drop out of the race shortly before the national election.

If she gets the job, she would bring a view of cybersecurity that's at odds with tech's biggest companies, which have declaimed U.S. government efforts to override their encryption as dangerous and a threat to personal privacy.

The one-time bitter political foes met Monday at Trump Tower in New York for what Fiorina called a "productive" discussion about China as "probably our most important adversary and a rising adversary."

"We talked about hacking, whether it’s Chinese hacking or purported Russian hacking," Fiorina told reporters.

Voices: Fiorina's business record belies campaign rhetoric

During the Republican primary season, Fiorina urged Apple, Google and others to "tear down cyberwalls" to help track down criminals online, a stance that ran in cross currents to Silicon Valley, which publicly supported Apple in its fight with the FBI over hacking into a terrorist's iPhone, and has been building stronger device encryption in the months since.

“We could have detected and repelled some of those cyberattacks” if we had passed “a law (that) has been sitting, languishing, sadly, on Capitol Hill,” she said at the first GOP debate last year.

While Beltway insiders are uncertain about the likelihood of a DNI appointment, there there is no argument Fiorina would be interested — notwithstanding the Trump's ugly verbal jousting with her on the campaign trail.

During a tumultuous five-year reign as CEO of HP, Fiorina displayed a steely resolve, laser-focused intensity and unbowed self-esteem. That was on full display when she almost single-handedly ushered in HP's $24 billion merger with Compaq Computer despite fierce resistance from HP board members and some employees, and a contentious court case in Delaware.

The merger, Fiorina insisted, was crucial to the long-term success of the iconic Silicon Valley-based company.

History, however, has not been kind to Fiorina's judgment. By the time she was forced out of HP in early 2005, the merged HP-Compaq had suffered 30,000 layoffs and a brutal shareholder showdown fractured its executive ranks.

Fiorina steadfastly maintained the mega-merger was the victim of the dot-com implosion and a deepening recession in Silicon Valley after the Sept. 11 attacks. She insisted she was vilified for her maverick management style.

"When you lead and when you challenge the status quo, you make enemies," she wrote in an essay published on CNN.com last year.

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