Elaine Chao

Elaine Lan Chao ( Chinese:赵小兰, pinyin: Zhao Xiǎolán, Wade-Giles Chao Hsiao -lan, born March 26, 1953 in Taipei) is an American politician ( Republican). She was from 2001 to 2009 Secretary of Labor of the United States under President George W. Bush and the first Asian-American woman who held a minister at the national level.

Childhood and education

After the takeover by the Communists fled Elaine chaos parents from the mainland to Taiwan. Elaine grew up in Taipei to eldest daughter of James SC Chao ( Zhao Xicheng赵锡成), a businessman from Shanghai, and Ruth Mu -lan Chu (朱 木兰Zhū Mulan ), a historian. At the age of eight, she emigrated to the USA, where her father had built in the meantime a commercial transaction, and attended Syosset High School in Long Iceland, New York.

She graduated in 1975 with a B. A. in economics from Mount Holyoke College and a Master 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 she bankers at Citigroup for a short time, she was selected as the 1983 White House Fellow in the Office of Policy Development, a program that ambitious people access to government to offer. During her time as Vice - President of Bank of America's capital markets, she was involved in donations to Republican candidates in California.

In 1986, Chao returned to Washington to be first as deputy director of the U.S. Maritime Administration in the Department for Transport, and then from 1988 to 1989 Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Commission (Commission for matters at sea).

The then president George Bush proposed in 1989 before the Deputy Minister of Transportation from 1991 to 1992, she was finally director of the Peace Corps, an ongoing program since 1961, the voluntary Americans provides opportunities to work abroad. Was in the time Chao Director, the Peace Corps has expanded its presence in a number of new countries such as Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia.

Also Elaine Chao worked for four years as president of United Way of America, an association of organizations. From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, she was distinguished member of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. As the only minister in the Bush cabinet, she completed the full eight -year term together with the President.

Family

Elaine Chao is with the chairman of the Republican faction in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, married. All five children of the couple are girls.