Elaine Chao
Elaine Lan Chao (Chinese: 趙小蘭, pinyin: Zhào Xiǎolán, Wade-Giles Chao Hsiao-lan; born March 26, 1953 in Taipei ) is an American politician ( Republican Party ). She was Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and the first Asian-American woman to hold a ministerial office at the national level.
In January 2017, Chao took over the Ministry of Transport in the cabinet of President Donald Trump . On January 31, 2017, she was confirmed as Minister of Transport by the Senate .
childhood and education
After the communists came to power, Elaine Chao's parents fled the mainland to Taiwan . Elaine grew up in Taipei as the eldest daughter of James SC Chao (趙錫成 Zhào Xīchéng), a businessman from Shanghai , and Ruth Mu-lan Chu (朱 木蘭 Zhū Mùlán), a historian. At the age of eight she immigrated to the United States, where her father had built up a trading business in the meantime, and attended Syosset High School in Long Island , New York .
She graduated in 1975 with a BA in Economics from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School . She also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Dartmouth College, and Columbia University . Chao received 34 honorary doctorates .
Career
After briefly being a banker at Citigroup , she was selected as a White House Fellow in 1983 for the Office of Policy Development, a program designed to give ambitious people access to government. During her tenure as Vice President of Capital Markets for Bank of America , she was involved in donations to Republican candidates in California .
In 1986, Chao returned to Washington , where she was initially deputy head of the US Maritime Administration in the Department of Transportation and from 1988 to 1989 chair of the US Maritime Commission .
In 1989, then-President George HW Bush proposed her as deputy minister for transportation, and from 1991 to 1992 she was director of the Peace Corps , a program that has been running since 1961 to offer American volunteer opportunities to work abroad. During the time that Chao was director, the Peace Corps expanded its presence to a number of new states such as Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia .
Elaine Chao was also the president of United Way of America , an association of aid organizations, for four years . From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor she was a member of the Heritage Foundation , a conservative Washington think tank. As the only cabinet member besides John P. Walters under Bush, she completed the full eight-year term with the president.
family
Elaine Chao is since 1993 with the chairman of the Republican faction in the US Senate , Mitch McConnell of Kentucky , married. Chao has no children, McConnell has three from his first marriage.
Conflicts of Interest
Elaine Chao comes from a wealthy Chinese family. She and her husband have also received monetary gifts and campaign support of at least USD 25 million from them in the past. Against this background, concerns about possible conflicts of interest have been raised. It was also criticized that Elaine Chao did not give up a stake in the road construction supplier Vulcan Materials after her appointment as Minister of Transport. Her family owns the Foremost Group shipping company ; this is closely interwoven with the Chinese state.
Web links
- Elaine Chao in the nndb (English)
- Elaine Chao in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elaine Chao Is Said to Be Trump's Pick for Transportation Secretary
- ↑ Trump's Transportation secretary pick Elaine Chao confirmed in Senate, with some top Democrats voting no. Accessed February 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Including: Michael Forsythe, Eric Lipton, Keith Bradsher, Sui-Lee Wee: A 'Bridge' to China, and Her Family's Business, in the Trump Cabinet . In: The New York Times . June 2, 2019, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed June 3, 2019]).
- ↑ a b Ines Zöttl: Trump's cabinet of scandals. In: Spiegel Online , June 7, 2019, accessed on June 12, 2019.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chao, Elaine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chao, Elaine Lan (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American politician (Republican Party) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 26, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Taipei |