Bush taps Kellogg CEO for Commerce post
WASHINGTON – In a surprise move, President Bush Monday tapped Cuban-born businessman Carlos Gutierrez as his new commerce secretary, replacing Bush’s longstanding Texas friend Donald Evans.
In choosing Gutierrez – the 51-year-old chief executive of Kellogg Co. and a self-made business leader with a rags-to-riches background – the president nominated a second Hispanic to his Cabinet and took the first step toward what is expected to be a nearly total makeover of his second-term economic team.
“He is a great American success story,” Bush said in an announcement at the White House Roosevelt Room. He told how Gutierrez fled Cuba with his family as a boy, learned English from a Miami hotel bellhop and rose from cereal deliveryman to head of the company in 25 years.
Bush had been expected to pick Mercer Reynolds III, a Cincinnati businessman who served as national finance chairman of Bush’s re-election effort. Reynolds, a former ambassador, helped advance Bush’s business career in Texas, including recruiting him to be general partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team.
Gutierrez does not appear to be a major Republican fund-raiser or donor. According to Kimberley Goode, a Kellogg spokeswoman, he gave $10,500 in campaign contributions during the 2003-04 election cycle. She said $10,000 went to the Republican National Committee’s presidential trust and another $500 went directly to the committee.
When asked why Gutierrez would leave the company at such an early age while still making millions of dollars, Goode said that the new nominee summed up his feelings when he said he believed passionately in Bush’s leadership and direction.
Gordon Gund, chairman of the nominating and governance committee of Kellogg’s board of directors, said Gutierrez “led the company through a critical period of change that resulted in several years of exceptional results. The nation will be fortunate to have him at the helm of the Commerce Department.”
The commerce post usually goes to a prominent business executive, and Gutierrez, as one of the top Hispanic executives in America, eclipsed all other potential candidates in the end. He brings strong management skills to the department, plus a businessman’s optimism.
He expressed confidence that America “is the best country in the world with which to do business.” He added, “We have the best people, we have the training, we have the workers, we have the culture. And I believe the 21st century is really and truly the American century, as the president does.”
Some also see a political benefit in the fact that the president picked a second Hispanic for his second-term Cabinet, after earlier nominating Alberto Gonzales to be his attorney general.