Donald Louis Evans (born July 27, 1946) is an American businessman. He was the 34th
U.S. Secretary of Commerce
The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
. He was appointed by his longtime friend
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and sworn into office on January 20, 2001. On November 9, 2004, the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
announced that Evans intended to resign by the end of January 2005.
Evans was chosen to be the Non-Executive Chairman of
TXU Energy, following the completion of its acquisition by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...
and
TPG Capital
TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...
.
Early life
Born in
Houston, Texas, Evans attended the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
, receiving a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
in 1969 and an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from the
McCombs School of Business
The McCombs School of Business (McCombs School or McCombs) is a business school at The University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. In addition to the main campus in Downtown Austin, McCombs offers classes outsid ...
in 1973. While at UT, he was a member of
Texas Cowboys
The Texas Cowboys is an honorary student organization at the University of Texas that is currently suspended due to hazing violations. The organization was founded in 1922 by Arno Nowotny and Bill McGill, with the purpose of serving the University ...
,
Omicron Delta Kappa and the
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...
fraternity.
In 1975, Evans moved to
Midland, Texas from Houston and began working on an
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
rig for Tom Brown Inc., a large independent energy company now based in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Ten years later he took the company over as CEO and continued running it until becoming Commerce Secretary.
Political career
Evans involvement with politics started in 1978, helping Bush to raise money for Bush's ultimately unsuccessful Congressional campaign and would serve as campaign chairman for Bush's successful Texas gubernatorial run in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
and re-election in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
. Evans was then appointed to the
University of Texas System
The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT& ...
Board of Regents for a 6-year term by Gov. Bush in 1995. In February 1997, Evans was selected as the board's chairman by his colleagues, serving as chair from through the end of his term in 2001. Evans resigned from the board in January 2001 to become Commerce Secretary. He was a board member of the
Scleroderma Research Foundation for eight years and a driving force behind Native Vision, a program that provides services to some 10,000
Native American children. He has been involved with the
United Way of America
United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit fundraising affiliates. United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public, prior to 2016.
United Way organizations raise funds ...
for many years, serving as President in 1989 and Campaign Chair in 1981. He has been named
Jaycees Man of the Year.
In April 2000, Evans was named campaign chairman of
Bush's presidential campaign and became the campaign's primary fundraiser. On December 20, 2000, President-elect Bush announced his intention to nominate Evans as Secretary of Commerce. On January 4, 2001, Evans became the first of President-elect Bush's Cabinet picks to face a confirmation hearing, appearing before the
. Evans was one of seven Cabinet members confirmed by the Senate via voice vote on President Bush's first day in office, January 20, 2001. During Bush's 2004
State of the Union he was the
designated survivor
In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is a named individual in the presidential line of succession, chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from events such as State of the Union addresses and pre ...
and spent the night in a secure undisclosed location. In the event of an attack on the
Capitol
A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity.
Specific capitols include:
* United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
* Numerous ...
, he would have become
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
.
On October 29, 2001,
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...
Chairman
Kenneth Lay
Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...
telephoned Evans, asking for help in persuading the credit rating agencies to refrain from a downgrade. Evans expressed sympathy but did nothing to intervene.
In July and August 2003, Evans and his colleagues, Treasury Secretary
John W. Snow and Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao
Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 18th United States secretary of transportation in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, ...
, took a bus across the country on their ''Jobs and Growth Tour'', aimed at promoting the benefits of the Bush Administration's tax cuts.
Following Bush's re-election, Evans announced his intention to resign as Commerce Secretary but pledged to stay in office until his successor was confirmed by the Senate. Carlos Gutierrez was sworn-in as Commerce Secretary by
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card
Andrew Hill Card Jr. (born May 10, 1947) is an American politician and academic administrator who was White House Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006, as well as head of Bush's White House Iraq Group. Card served as ...
on February 7, 2005.
Post-Government Service
Multiple news publications reported on May 26, 2006 that Evans had emerged as the front-runner to take become
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
pending
John W. Snow's then rumored resignation. However, on May 30,
Henry Paulson was nominated to replace Snow.
Evans also served as CEO of the
Financial Services Forum
The Financial Services Forum is an American, non-partisan economic policy and advocacy organization whose members are the chief executive officers of the eight largest and most diversified financial institutions headquartered in the United State ...
, a trade association representing the CEOs of financial services firms dedicated to using the
Protect America Act to overtake legitimate economic development organizations, seeking to encourage an open and competitive global marketplace. Evans also serves as the chairman of the board of the George W. Bush Foundation.
Personal life
He is married to Penelope Evans.
He has a grandson named Mitchell Moon.
He has two granddaughters named Makenzie Moon and Emily Moon.
Fictional portrayal
Evans was portrayed by
Noah Wyle
Noah Strausser Speer Wyle (; born June 4, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as John Carter in the television series '' ER'' (1994–2009), which earned him nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and five Primetime Emm ...
in ''
W.'',
Oliver Stone's 2008
biopic of George W. Bush.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Donald
1946 births
Living people
People from Midland, Texas
Politicians from Houston
United States Secretaries of Commerce
George W. Bush administration cabinet members
21st-century American politicians
McCombs School of Business alumni
Texas Republicans
Cockrell School of Engineering alumni