Meet Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Posted on | May 17, 2009 | 10 Comments
Secretary Norman Mineta
Not only is he the first Asian American to be appointed to a Cabinet position (Secretary of Commerce under Bill Clinton), he is also the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation in U.S. history (under George Bush). He was a co-sponsor, along with Congressman Frank Horton (R-NY) of both the 1978 House Resolution establishing Pacific/Asian Heritage Week and the 1992 bill that expanded the week into “Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.”
SECRETARY MINETA’S INTERVIEW ON MAY 21 WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! Norm was gracious and a great storyteller, and the audience submitted many more questions via the webcast page than we had time to ask. It was a wonderful way to launch visualizAsian.com’s AAPI Empowerment Series! If you missed the call and live webcast, you can still register and replay or download the MP3 — just register for access, and you’ll be notified of all future visualizAsian.com interviews.
Secretary Mineta’s career in public service has been both distinguished and unique. He served in Congress for over twenty years and the Cabinet of both Republican and Democratic presidents. Mineta is well known for his work in the areas of transportation – including aviation, surface transportation, and infrastructure – and national security. He is recognized for his accomplishments in economic development, science and technology policy, foreign and domestic trade, budgetary issues and civil rights.
His years in political office came in contrast to his childhood experience, imprisoned during World War II in a Japanese American internment camp.
Mineta was born in San Jose, California, to Japanese immigrant parents who were not allowed to become U.S. citizens at that time. During WWII the Mineta family was interned in the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming, along with thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans.
While detained in the camp, Mineta, a Boy Scout, met fellow Scout Alan K. Simpson, future U.S. Senator from Wyoming, who often visited the Scouts in the internment camp with his troop. The two became, and have remained, close friends and political allies.
He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Business Administration (since named in honor of Walter A. Haas, Sr.) in 1953 with a degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, Mineta joined the US Army and served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea. He then joined his father in the Mineta Insurance Agency.
He began his public service at a local level.
For almost 30 years, Mineta represented San Jose, California – the heart of Silicon Valley – first on the City Council, then as Mayor, and then from 1975 to 1995 as a Member of Congress. Throughout that time, Mineta was an advocate of the burgeoning technology industry. He worked to encourage new industries and spur job growth, and he supported the development of the infrastructure to accommodate the industry and its tremendous growth.
Mineta served as the Chairman of the House Transportation and Public Works Committee from 1992 to 1994, after having chaired the Subcommittee on Aviation and the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation. He was the primary author of the groundbreaking Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991.
In 2000, Mineta was appointed by President Bill Clinton as the United States Secretary of Commerce. At the Department of Commerce, Mineta was known for his work on technology issues, for achieving international cooperation and intergovernmental coordination on complex fisheries issues, and streamlining the patent and trademark process.
Mineta was appointed Secretary of Transportation by President George W. Bush in 2001, where he served until July 2006. Following the horrific terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, Mineta guided the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, the largest mobilization of a new federal agency since World War II.
Mineta was also a Vice President of Lockheed Martin where he oversaw the first successful implementation of the EZ-Pass system in New York State.
Currently, Secretary Mineta is Vice Chairman of Hill & Knowlton, based in its Washington, DC office. Mineta provides counsel and strategic advice to Hill & Knowlton clients on a wide range of business and political issues.
Other Information
Globally recognized for his leadership, Mineta has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – our nation’s highest civilian honor – and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, which is awarded for significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the United States. He is also the recipient of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
He was the co-founder of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Chair of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.
Secretary Mineta is married to Danealia (Deni) Mineta and has two sons, David K. Mineta and Stuart S. Mineta, and two step-sons, Robert M. Brantner and Mark Brantner
SECRETARY MINETA’S INTERVIEW ON MAY 21 WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! Norm was gracious and a great storyteller, and the audience submitted many more questions via the webcast page than we had time to ask. It was a wonderful way to launch visualizAsian.com’s AAPI Empowerment Series! If you missed the call and live webcast, you can still register and replay or download the MP3 — just register for access, and you’ll be notified of all future visualizAsian.com interviews.
About visualizAsian
visualizAsian is a website that will feature free interviews with leading Asian American Pacific Islanders from politics, pop culture, business and more, as a way to inspire and empower other AAPIs to follow in their footsteps. A second interview has been scheduled for June 2 with author Phoebe Eng, and future interviews will include actor and activist Tamlyn Tomita, “Survivor: Cook Islands” winner Yul Kwon and journalist/activist Helen Zia.
visualizAsian.com’s founder are Erin Yoshimura, a Denver-based trainer and Certified Personal Branding Coach (www.empowerful.com), and Gil Asakawa, a journalist and online media expert (www.nikkeiview.com). More details can be found at www.visualizAsian.com.
Tags: cabinet secretary > government > internment camps > japanese american > norman mineta
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May 21st, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
Erin, Gil, Great inaugural interview! Looking forward to future installments!
Mr Mineta, Thank you for your time and insights! You had a lot of great advice and are a great source of inspiration to our community!
May 21st, 2009 @ 9:05 pm
Thanks, Joz! Norm was truly the perfect first guest for this project.
May 23rd, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
Hi Gil,
Excited to hear the podcast. How do I register?
Conrad
May 24th, 2009 @ 6:01 am
This looks great – what a fantastic idea! I’m listening to the Norman Mineta interview now and I’m especially looking forward to that Tamlyn Tomita interview.
May 24th, 2009 @ 10:28 am
Hi Conrad, did you get an initial email inviting you to you to register? If you regfister you’ll be taken directly to the replay page. If you didn’t get a registration email, I can send it to you via email.
Erin & Gil
May 24th, 2009 @ 10:30 am
Hi hyashinsu, thanks for the kind words. Tamlyn’s agreed to do an interview, so we’re just trying to pick a date that works for her. We’ll definitely keep everyone posted!
Gil and Erin
May 25th, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
Hi Gil and Erin,
I actually went ahead and registered through Gil’s Nikkeiview website–great interview!
Are there any plans to upload the mp3 to iTunes?
C
May 25th, 2009 @ 2:14 pm
Hi Conrad, we do plan on making these available as podcasts and also podcasts available via iTunes, but we want to make sure we have everything worked out upfront first. There are some details on getting stuff onto iTunes, but that’s our plan eventually!
Thanks
May 28th, 2009 @ 12:19 am
Great!
We put out a shout out to the site on our weekly podcast around 30 minute mark–look forward to your next interview! (Sorry that I forgot your last name, Erin)
http://tinyurl.com/qmnzz9
C
May 28th, 2009 @ 6:51 am
Cool, thanks, Conrad! I know we’re behind but we’ll be announcing the “tune-in” details of the next interviews soon…