Childhood and Education
The eldest of six daughters, Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan, to Ruth Mulan Chu Chao (趙朱木蘭 Zhào Zhū Mùlán), a historian, and Dr. James S.C. Chao (趙錫成博士 Zhào Xīchéng), who began his career as a merchant mariner and later, after getting established in New York, built a successful shipping company (Foremost Shipping Co.). Elaine Chao’s parents had fled to Taiwan from mainland China after the Chinese Communists took over after the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Chao attended Taipei’s Tsai Hsing Elementary School in kindergarten and first grade. Chao, her mother and two eldest sisters came to the U.S. aboard a freight ship in 1961, when she was eight years old. Her father had arrived in New York three years earlier after receiving a scholarship. It took three years for her father to save enough money to pay for his family’s passage from Taiwan and for visas to be obtained for them.
Elaine Chao received her B.A. in Economics from Mount Holyoke College in 1975 and her MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1979. Chao also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, and Columbia University. In addition, Chao has received 34 honorary doctorate degrees from the following schools: Villanova University, St. John's University, Sacred Heart University, Drexel University, Niagara University, Thomas More College (Kentucky), Bellarmine University, University of Toledo, University of Louisville, Goucher College, Kentucky Wesleyan College, University of Notre Dame, Miami Dade College, University of South Carolina, Campbellsville University, Depauw University, St. Mary's College, Regent University, Northern Alabama University, Centre College, Fu Jen Catholic University, Wingate University, Northern Kentucky University, Catholic University of America, Elmira College, Agnes Scott College, Marquette University, Sweet Briar College, Murray State University, Nyack College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, St. Catharine College, Western Kentucky University
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