In 1981, Whitman moved to San Francisco when her husband, a neurosurgeon, began a residency at the University of California Whitman then found work as a consultant for Bain & Company, where she stayed for the next eight years. Moving to the Walt Disney Company in 1989 as a senior vice president of marketing, Whitman opened Disney's first stores in Japan, After her husband took a new position in Boston, she accepted a job as president of Stride Rite shoes, putting "Keds" back in the public eye. In 1995 the left Stride Rite for the challenge of revamping the floundering Florists' Transworld Delivery (FTD). She fought the corporate higher-ups and transformed it into a privately held company. In 1997, Whitman changed jobs again to go Hasbro, Inc., where she was general manager of the Playskool division handling Mr.Potato Head and the Telaytubbies.