Our Leadership
Secretary Elaine Chao
At-Large Member Worldwide Board of Trustees
Elaine Chao is an experienced leader of large complex, domestic and international organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. She is a veteran in strategic management, crisis communications, innovative transformations, public/private partnerships and coalition building. Elaine is the first Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander appointed to a President’s cabinet. Confirmed on a strong bipartisan basis to two U.S. cabinet positions, U.S. Secretary of Labor and U.S. Secretary of Transportation, she is also the longest serving Cabinet Secretary since World War II.
Prior to becoming Secretary of Labor, Elaine was President and CEO of United Way of America, where she worked with local United Ways to restore public trust by reforming the governance structure to reflect a culture of accountability and transparency during a challenging period in United Way of America’s history.
Elaine also served as head of the Peace Corps, where she launched programs in the Baltic nations and former Soviet Union, including Ukraine. She began her public service as a White House Fellow. She advanced to Deputy Maritime Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation; Chairman, Federal Maritime Commission; and Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation. Elaine has also worked as a banker with Citicorp and BankAmerica Capital Markets Group.
Born in Taiwan, Elaine immigrated to America at the age of 8 not speaking any English and received her citizenship at age 19. It was this challenging experience of transitioning to a new life that led her to devote herself to helping others fulfill their potential.
Elaine has been a director on numerous Fortune 100 corporate boards while out of government. An active volunteer, she has also served on many nonprofit boards and is a passionate advocate of the United Way movement. Elaine has an economics degree from Mount Holyoke College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Elaine’s diverse career spans the corporate, nonprofit, and governance sectors. As such, her expertise is broad and includes board governance, campaigns and fundraising, private public partnerships, change management, and policy development and implementation.