Norm Mineta

Secretary Norman Y. Mineta is vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton based in its Washington, DC office where he provides counsel and strategic advice to Hill & Knowlton clients on a wide range of business and political issues including expertise in transportation (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, the environment, budgetary issues and civil rights.

Secretary Mineta served in Congress for over twenty years and in the Cabinets of both Republican and Democratic presidents. For almost thirty years, Mineta represented San Jose, California, first on the City Council, then as Mayor, and then from 1975 to 1995 as a Member of Congress.  He was appointed the United States Secretary of Transportation by President George W. Bush in 2001, where he served until he joined Hill & Knowlton in July, 2006. Following the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, Secretary Mineta guided the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, an agency with more than 65,000 employees, and the largest mobilization of a new federal agency since World War II.  Mineta was vice president of Lockheed Martin before joining the Commerce Department, where he oversaw the first successful implementation of the EZ-Pass system in New York State.

Among his numerous accomplishments, Secretary Mineta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US, and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy, awarded for significant pubilc service of enduring value to aviation in the United States. While in Congress, he was the co-founder of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Chair of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission in 1999. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.