Angela Chao, a CEO in the shipping industry and the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has died in a car accident, her family says.
Angela Chao, who was 50, passed away in Texas on Sunday, according to a family statement that did not give any further information about the cause of death. The Blanco County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that it was investigating an incident on private property that involved Chao, but it would not provide any additional information.
Chao was the leader and CEO of her family’s shipping business, the Foremost Group, and the president of her father’s charitable foundation, the Foremost Foundation. She lived in Austin, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Blanco County.
Chao was the youngest of six sisters to immigrant parents who moved to the U.S. from China in the late 1950s. Elaine Chao, who is Elaine Chao’s eldest sibling, is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and was Transportation Secretary under President Donald Trump and Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush.
“Angela’s name in Chinese sounds like the characters for peace and prosperity,” her father, James S.C. Chao, said in the family statement. “Her absence leaves a void not only in our hearts, but in the Asian-American community.”
After her death, her father was chosen as the chairman of Foremost Group. Michael Lee, a former president, was selected as the new president.
Chao’s family includes her husband, father, and four sisters.
The Chao family, led by Angela and Elaine Chao’s father, James S.C. Chao, stands out because of its deep political and commercial ties in both the United States and China. In the late 1940s, Mr. Chao and the defeated Nationalists fled mainland China to Taiwan. In 1958, he moved to the United States and played a role in the creation of the Foremost Group. He later developed a close relationship with Jiang Zemin, a former schoolmate from Shanghai who rose to become China’s president and died in 2022.
Ms. Chao, along with her father, both U.S. citizens, were among the few foreigners to have served on the boards of some of China’s largest enterprises. Both were directors of the holding company for China State Shipbuilding, a government-owned enterprise that makes ships for the Chinese military, as well as for Foremost Group and other customers. Ms. Chao was also a former board member of the Bank of China, a top lender to the shipbuilder, and a former vice chair of the Council of China’s Foreign Trade, a promotional group created by the Chinese government.
“Although born in America, she never forgot her roots and throughout her life helped build bridges of understanding between East and West,” Mr. Chao said of his daughter in a statement.
“Losing her at such a young age is something we never imagined, and our entire family is devastated with grief,” he said.
The youngest of six daughters, Angela Chao was born in 1973 in Syosset, N.Y., on the North Shore of Long Island, and grew up in Harrison, N.Y., a well-to-do town in Westchester County. In 1994, she finished her studies at Harvard College and graduated in three years.
After a brief interlude in finance at Smith Barney, she joined the family business in 1996. Later, she earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. As Foremost Group’s chief executive, Ms. Chao emphasized the importance of ordering new, more environmentally sustainable vessels that can burn alternative fuels.
Key Points
- Foremost Group CEO Angela Chao, the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was pronounced dead after her car went into a pond at a private property located about 40 miles west of Austin, Texas, officials said.
- Chao’s family announced her death on Wednesday, and the Blanco County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating it.
- Chao, who graduated from Harvard twice and became CEO of Foremost in 2018, was married to venture capitalist Jim Breyer.
- She is the sister of Elaine Chao, who served as Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration and as Secretary of Labor in the administration of former President George W. Bush.
