Elaine Chao
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Elaine Lan Chao (Traditional Chinese: 趙小蘭; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhào Xiǎolán; Wade-Giles: Chao Hsiao-lan<ref>Hsiao-lan means "little orchid." Elaine Chao has four sisters, three of whom also have names starting with "Little" (Xiao). They are: Xiao-mei (小美, little beauty), Xiao-pu (小甫), Xiao-ting (小婷).</ref>; b. March 26, 1953) currently serves as the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor. She is the first Asian American woman and first Chinese American<ref>Press Briefing by Administration Officials on American Competitiveness Initiative (February 1, 2006), retrieved July 27, 2006</ref> to be appointed to a President's cabinet in U.S. history. In 2007, following Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's retirement, Chao will be the President's only original cabinet member still holding the position, making her the longest serving cabinet member during President Bush's administration.
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[edit] Childhood and education
Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan to James S. C. Chao (趙錫成 Zhào Xīchéng), a Shanghainese entrepreneur, and Ruth Mu-lan Chu (朱木蘭 Zhū Mùlán), a historian. Her parents had fled to Taiwan from mainland China at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. At the age of eight, Elaine Chao and her family immigrated to the United States, where her father had already settled a few years earlier. She attended Syosset High School on Long Island, New York.
Chao received her B.A. in Economics from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and her MBA from the Harvard Business School. She also studied at MIT, Dartmouth College, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of 28 honorary doctoral degrees from colleges and universities around the world.
[edit] Career
After a brief stint as a banker with Citigroup, she was selected as a White House Fellow in 1983, working in the Office of Policy Development. After her Fellowship, she moved to California and worked as a vice president with BankAmerica Capital Markets Group.
[edit] With George H.W. Bush administration
In 1986, Chao returned to Washington D.C. as Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration in the US Department of Transportation. From 1988 to 1989, she was Chairwoman of the Federal Maritime Commission.
In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Chao to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation, the number two position in the department. From 1991 to 1992, Chao was Director of the Peace Corps. She was the first Asian American to serve in all these positions. She expanded Peace Corps' presence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by establishing the first Peace Corps programs in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.
[edit] United Way and Heritage Foundation
Following her service in the government, Chao worked for four years as President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of America. She is credited with returning credibility and public trust back to the organization after an embarrassing financial mismanagement scandal involving former United Way of America president, Bill Aramony. From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Chao was a Distinguished Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank.
[edit] Labor Secretary
As Secretary of Labor, Chao initiated a number of significant reforms. The Department of Labor completed regulations that raised the minimum salary for automatic overtime eligibility from $8,060 to $22,100, while exempting most white-collar workers earning more than $100,000. The changes were the first since 1975. The final regulations went into effect in August 2004. The administration touted that these changes would provide strengthened overtime protection for 6.7 million workers, however many groups, including the Economic Policy Institute and AFL-CIO believed it would do the opposite. Chao also published regulations protecting the employment rights of members of the armed forces when they return to civilian life, and put in place new financial transparency requirements for labor unions. The Department of Labor has also recovered record amounts of back wages for workers and helped reduce workplace fatalities and injuries.
Now that Donald Rumsfeld has steped down from his position as Secretary of Defense, she is the only original Cabinet member still serving in the Bush Administration in the same position she was first appointed to.
[edit] Timeline
- 1983: White House Fellow, Office of Policy Development, the White House
- 1986: Deputy Administrator, Maritime Administration, US Department of Transportation
- 1988–89: Chairwoman, Federal Maritime Commission
- 1989: Deputy Secretary of Transportation
- 1991–92: Director, Peace Corps
- 1992–96: President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of America
- 1996: Distinguished Fellow, Heritage Foundation
- 2001–Present: U.S. Secretary of Labor
[edit] Family
Elaine Chao is married to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming Minority Leader of the United States Senate.
[edit] Notes and references
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[edit] External links
- Office of the Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
- Elaine L. Chao at the Notable Names Database
- U.S. Department of Labor Biography
| Preceded by: Alexis Herman | United States Secretary of Labor Under President George W. Bush 2001 – present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by: Carlos Gutierrez | United States order of precedence as of 2006 | Succeeded by: Michael Leavitt |
| United States Secretaries of Labor
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|---|
| Secretaries of Commerce & Labor (1903–1913): Cortelyou • Metcalf • Straus • Nagel Secretaries of Labor (1913—): Wilson • Davis • Doak • Perkins • Schwellenbach • Tobin • Durkin • Mitchell • Goldberg • Wirtz • Shultz • Hodgson • Brennan • Dunlop • Usery • Marshall • Donovan • Brock • McLaughlin • Dole • Martin • Reich • Herman • Chao |
| Current members of the Cabinet of President George W. Bush
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| Bodman • Bolten • Chao • Cheney • Chertoff • Gonzales • Gutierrez • Jackson • Johanns • Johnson • Kempthorne • Leavitt • Nicholson • Paulson • Peters • Portman • Rice • Rumsfeld • Schwab • Spellings • Walters |
fr:Elaine Chao ja:イレーン・チャオ sh:Elaine Chao zh:趙小蘭
Categories: 1953 births | Living people | Asian American politicians | Chinese Americans | Foreign-born American politicians | Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni | Mount Holyoke College alumnae | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Overseas Chinese politicians | Peace Corps directors | People from Long Island | People from Nassau County, New York | United States Secretaries of Labor
