\n\n N\/A\n <\/td>\n | \n N\/A\n <\/td>\n | \n N\/A\n <\/td>\n | \n N\/A\n <\/td>\n | \n N\/A\n <\/td>\n | \n N\/A\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\nBefore Fame<\/h2>\nHer father moved to the U.S. on a scholarship and saved up for three years to pay for the family’s visas and tickets to follow him.<\/p>\n <\/i> Biography<\/h2>\n<\/i> Biography Timeline<\/h2>\n\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1953<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Elaine Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan on March 26, 1953 and immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. She is the eldest of six daughters of Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, a historian, and James S.C. Chao, who began his career as a merchant mariner and in 1964 founded a shipping company in New York City. The company, Foremost Maritime Corporation, developed into the Foremost Group; as of 2013, James S.C. Chao continued to serve as its Chairman, later succeeded by Elaine’s sister Angela. James first met Ruth when she and her family relocated to Shanghai during World War II. In 1949, James and Ruth relocated separately to Taiwan at the culmination of the Chinese Civil War. They married in 1950. In 1961, Elaine 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1975<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Chao received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1975. In the second semester of her junior year, she studied money and banking at Dartmouth College. She received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1979.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1983<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before entering public service, Chao was vice president for syndications at Bank of America Capital Markets Group in San Francisco, and she was an International Banker at Citicorp in New York for four years from 1979 to 1983. She was granted a White House Fellowship in 1983 during the Reagan Administration and was then Vice President, Syndications at Bank of America from 1984 to 1986.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1986<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 1986, Chao became Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation. From 1988 to 1989, she served as Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Chao to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation; she served from 1989 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992, she was the Director of the Peace Corps. She was the first Asian Pacific American to serve in any of these positions. She expanded the Peace Corps’ presence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by establishing the first Peace Corps programs in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1993<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 1993, Chao married Mitch McConnell, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky and the eventual Senate Majority Leader. They were introduced by Stuart Bloch, an early friend of McConnell’s, and his wife Julia Chang Bloch, a Chinese American and a future U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, the first Asian American to serve as U.S. Ambassador, who mentored Chao. Bloch described Chao as a “tiger wife”, a reference to Amy Chua’s 2011 book about her disciplinarian parenting style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 1996<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Chao has been recognized by many academic institutions for her commitment to public service. She was made an honoris causa initiate of Omicron Delta Kappa in 1996 at SUNY Plattsburgh. Chao has also received 37 honorary doctorates, including an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Georgetown University in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2002<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 2002, a major West Coast ports dispute costing the U.S. economy nearly $1 billion daily was resolved when the Bush administration obtained a national emergency injunction against both the employers and the union under the Taft\u2013Hartley Act for the first time since 1971. Led by Chao In 2003, for the first time in more than 40 years, the Department updated the labor union financial disclosure regulations under the Landrum\u2013Griffin Act of 1959, which created more extensive disclosure requirements for union-sponsored pension plans and other trusts to prevent embezzlement or other financial mismanagement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2004<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 2004, the Department issued revisions of the white-collar overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2006<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Mining disasters in 2006 and 2007 included West Virginia’s Sago Mine explosion, which killed 12 in January 2006; West Virginia’s Alma Mine fire, which killed two in January 2006; the Darby Mine No. 1 explosion in Kentucky, where five miners died in May 2006; and the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse in Utah, which killed six workers and three rescuers in August 2007.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2007<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n A 2007 report by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that mine safety regulators did not conduct federally required inspections at more than one in seven of the country’s 731 underground coal mines in 2006, and that the number of worker deaths in mining accidents more than doubled to 47 in that year. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) “missed 147 inspections at 107 mines employing a total of 7,500 workers”. A separate audit of 21 inspection reports determined that documents were missing, misdated, or mislabeled and that “MSHA officials misstated inspection statistics in reports and on the agency’s Web site.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2008<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n A 2008 Government Accountability Office report noted that the Labor Department gave Congress inaccurate numbers which understated the expense of contracting out its employees’ work to private firms during Chao’s tenure.<\/p>\n The Labor Department was widely criticized for “walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues, including wage and hour law and workplace safety”. A 2009 internal audit appraising an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiative focusing on problematic workplaces for the past six years stated that employees had failed to gather needed data, conducted uneven inspections and enforcement, and failed to discern repeat fatalities because records misspelled the companies’ names or failed to notice when two subsidiaries with the same owner were involved; it also noted that after rules changes in January 2008 the number of targeted companies declined by almost half.<\/p>\n In April 2008, Chao’s father gave Chao and McConnell between $5 million and $25 million, which “boosted McConnell’s personal worth from a minimum of $3 million in 2007 to more than $7 million” and “helped the McConnells after their stock portfolio dipped in the wake of the financial crisis that year”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2009<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Following her service in President George H.W. Bush’s administration, Chao worked for four years from 1992 to 1996 as president and CEO of United Way of America. She is credited with returning credibility and public trust to the organization after a financial mismanagement scandal involving former president William Aramony. From 1996 until her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Chao was a Distinguished Fellow with The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. She was also a board member of the Independent Women’s Forum. She returned to the Heritage Foundation after leaving the government in January 2009.<\/p>\n In 2009 Chao resumed her previous role as a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and she contributed to Fox News and other media outlets.<\/p>\n The University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library opened the “McConnell-Chao Archives” in November 2009. It is a major component of the university’s McConnell Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2010<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 2010, the widows of the two men killed in the Alma Mine fire sued the federal government for wrongful death, citing lack of inspections, failure to act against violations, and conflicts of interest. “MSHA’s review of the fire acknowledged significant lapses by inspectors, supervisors and district managers” at the mine but the agency did not admit liability for the negligent inspections. In 2013, the appeals court ruled that MSHA can be held liable “when a negligent inspection results in the wrongful death of a coal miner”. The suit was settled in 2014, with MSHA agreeing to pay the two widows $500,000 each and to allow them to see OIG interviews pertaining to the fire; MSHA also agreed to develop a training course on preventing fires in underground mines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2011<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n She also served as a director on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, including the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Wells Fargo, New York\u2013Presbyterian Hospital, News Corp, Dole Food Company, and Protective Life Corporation. According to financial disclosure forms, Chao was slated to receive between $1\u20135 million for compensation for her service on the board of Wells Fargo. In June 2011, she was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2012<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In 2012, the Chao family donated $40 million to Harvard Business School for scholarships for students of Chinese heritage and the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, an executive education building named for Chao’s late mother. It is the first Harvard Business School building named after a woman, and the first building named after an American of Asian ancestry. Ruth Mulan Chu Chao returned to school at age 51 to earn a master’s degree in Asian literature and history from St. John’s University in the Queens borough of New York City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n She has been described by Jan Karzen, a longtime friend of McConnell’s, as adding “a softer touch” to McConnell’s style by speaking of him “in a feminine, wifely way”. She has also been described as “the campaign hugger” and is also known for bipartisan socializing. For example, in 2014 she hosted a dinner with philanthropist Catherine B. Reynolds to welcome Penny Pritzker as Secretary of Commerce, where she spent the evening socializing with Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s closest advisor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2015<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n In January 2015 she resigned from the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which she had joined in 2012, because of its plans to significantly increase support for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” initiative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n 2016<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n \n U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 29, 2016, that he would nominate Chao to be Secretary of Transportation. The U.S. Senate confirmed Chao on January 31, 2017, by a vote of 93\u20136, with her husband Senator McConnell abstaining. While there was support on both sides of the Senate, some Senators still fear contention, cautioning “against the privatization of government services, alluding to a possible point of friction between Democrats and the incoming Trump administration.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n |