Chao, Elaine Lan (1953-…), served as secretary of transportation in the Cabinet of United States President Donald J. Trump from 2017 to 2021. Chao had earlier served as secretary of labor in the presidential administration of George W. Bush .
Elaine Lan Chao was born in the city of Taipei in Taiwan, an island in the South China Sea, on March 26, 1953. Her parents had each moved from mainland China to the island about 1949, during a conflict between non-Communist Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists. Elaine’s father, James S. C. Chao, became a sea captain. Her father moved to the United States in 1958, and the rest of the family—Elaine and her mother and sisters—followed in 1961. They lived in New York City. Her father later founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation (now part of the Foremost Group), a shipping and trading company.
Chao earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1975. She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1979. After graduating, she worked in the banking industry in New York City. In 1983, Chao was named a White House Fellow. In that role, she worked in Washington, D.C., with the administration of President Ronald Reagan . She then worked in banking in San Francisco, California.
In 1986, Chao was named deputy administrator of the Maritime Administration . The Maritime Administration is a Department of Transportation agency concerned with matters involving U.S. water-borne shipping. In 1988, Reagan appointed Chao to chair the Federal Maritime Commission , an independent government agency that administers the nation’s shipping laws. After George H. W. Bush succeeded Reagan as president, he named Chao deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation. In 1991 and 1992, Chao served as director of the Peace Corps , an overseas volunteer program of the U.S. government that helps people in developing countries improve their living conditions.
Chao married U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell , a Republican from Kentucky, in 1993. From 1992 to 1996, she was the president and chief executive officer of the United Way , a charitable organization. After leaving the United Way, she became a public speaker and served on a number of boards of corporate and nonprofit organizations. She also held a position at the Heritage Foundation , a conservative public policy research institute.
From 2001 to 2009, Chao served as secretary of labor in the administration of President George W. Bush. She then returned to the Heritage Foundation, resumed public speaking, and served on several boards. In 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Chao to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation. The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination in January 2017. Chao announced her resignation from the position in January 2021—about two weeks before the end of Trump’s term as president—after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
