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Elaine Chao
Summary
Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and as United States secretary of transportation in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Chao was the first Asian-Pacific American woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chao immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. Her father founded the Foremost Group, an American shipping company based in New York. Chao was raised in Queens, New York and on Long Island, and received degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Business School. She worked for financial institutions before being appointed to several senior positions in the Department of Transportation under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, including Chair of the Federal Maritime Commission (1988–1989) and Deputy Secretary of Transportation (1989–1991). She served as Director of the Peace Corps from 1991 to 1992 and as president of the United Way of America from 1993 to 1996. When not in government, Chao has served on several corporate boards of directors, including currently for Hyliion, an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of electric trucks, and electric charger network provider ChargePoint.
Elaine Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 26, 1953. She is the eldest of six daughters of Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, a historian from an Anhui family, and James S. C. Chao, who began his career as a merchant mariner and in 1964 founded the shipping company Foremost Maritime Corporation in New York City, which developed into the Foremost Group. In 1961, at the age of 8, Chao came to the United States on a 37-day freight ship journey along with her mother and two younger sisters. Her father had arrived in New York three years earlier after receiving a scholarship.
Chao described her early life in America as a typical immigrant story, noting that "everything was foreign to us: the culture, people, language, traditions, and even the food.
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