The Bush Cabinet

Ed Schafer was sworn in as the 29th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on 18 January 2008. He was a two-term Republican governor of North Dakota. After leaving the governorship in 2000, he co-founded Extend America, a venture capital-backed company, to provide wireless voice and high-speed data services to commercial and residential customers in five rural Midwestern states. A native of Bismarck, ND, Schafer holds an MBA from the University of Denver and a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of North Dakota.

US Department of Agriculture

Carlos M. Gutierrez is the 35th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the voice of business in government; he was was sworn into office on 7 February 2005. The former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Kellogg Company, he was the youngest CEO in the company’s nearly 100-year history. Secretary Gutierrez oversees a Cabinet agency with 38,000 workers and a $6.5 billion budget focused on promoting American business at home and abroad. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1953, Gutierrez moved to the United States with his family in 1960. Gutierrez studied business administration at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Queretaro, Mexico.

US Department of Commerce

Dr. Robert M. Gates was sworn in on December 18, 2006, as the 22nd Secretary of Defense. Prior to assuming this position, he was the President of Texas A&M University, the nation’s seventh largest university. Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993; he was Deputy National Security Adviser at the George H.W. Bush White House from 20 January 1989 until 6 November 1991. He is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. A native of Kansas, Gates is the author of the 1996 memoir, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.

U.S. Department of Defense

Margaret Spellings is the U.S. Secretary of Education, the first mother of school-aged children to serve as Education Secretary; she has no experience or education as a teacher or school administrator. Prior to confirmation on 20 January 2005, Spellings was Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, where she helped create the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. In 2005, she convened a Commission on the Future of Higher Education to recommend reform at the post-secondary level. Born in Michigan, Spellings moved with her family to Houston, Texas, at a young age. She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science.

U.S. Department of Education

Samuel Wright Bodman was sworn in as the 11th Secretary of Energy on 1 February 2005. He leads the Department of Energy with a budget in excess of $23 billion and over 100,000 federal and contractor employees. In February 2004, he served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Born in 1938 in Chicago, he graduated in 1961 with a B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University. He was an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and Technical Director of the American Research and Development Corp., a venture capital firm. He was Chairman, CEO, and a Director of Cabot Corporation, a Boston-based Fortune 300 company with global business activities in specialty chemicals and materials.

U.S. Department of Energy

Michael O. Leavitt was sworn in as the 20th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on 26 January 2005. He manages one of the largest civilian departments in the federal government (more than 67,000 employees) that has a budget which accounts for almost one out of every four federal dollars. Prior to his current service, Leavitt served as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and three-term Governor of Utah.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

On 15 February 2005, Judge Michael Chertoff was sworn in as the second Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff formerly served as United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Before joining the Bush Administration, Chertoff was a Partner in the law firm of Latham & Watkins. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Special Counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. Chertoff graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1975 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1978.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Steve Preston was sworn in as the 14th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on 5 June 2008. Preston oversees HUD's mission of providing affordable housing free from discrimination, helping families purchase and stay in their homes, and promoting economic development. As the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), he pearheaded a reform agenda. Prior to overseeing SBA, Preston was Executive Vice President of The ServiceMaster Company. He graduated from Northwestern University with a political science degree and received an MBA from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Dirk Kempthorne was confirmed as the 49th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on 26 May 2006. Prior to his confirmation as Secretary, Kempthorne served nearly two terms as Governor of Idaho, elected first in 1998 and reelected in 2002. He served as Idaho's junior senator from 1993-1999. He was Mayor of the City of Boise from 1985-1992.

U.S. Department of the Interior

Michael Mukasey was confirmed by the United States Senate on 8 November 2007. Prior to becoming Attorney General, he had a lengthy career as an attorney, including service as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1972 to 1976 in New York. From 1976 to 1987 he was an associate, and then member, of the firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. Mukasey was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and served until 2006, the last six years as chief judge. Upon his retirement from the bench, Mukasey returned to Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.

U.S. Department of Justice