Angela Chao, CEO of Family's Big Shipping Company, dies at age 50

Angela Chao, the CEO of a shipping company and part of a family prominent in American politics and business deals with China, died in 2011. a car accident on Sunday, in Texas. She was 50.

Her family confirmed her death. Details about the accident were not immediately available.

Since 2018, Ms. Chao served as Chairman and CEO of the Chao family's Foremost Group, which operates a global fleet of bulk carriers. The ships are used for the transport of raw materials such as iron ore and soybeans.

She was a sister of Elaine Chao, who served as Secretary of Transportation under former President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush. Elaine Chao is married to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader of the Senate.

The Chao family, led by Angela and Elaine Chao's father, James SC Chao, is notable for its deep political and commercial ties in both the United States and China. Mr. Chao fled from mainland China to Taiwan with the defeated Nationalists in the late 1940s. He moved to the United States in 1958 and helped found the Foremost Group in 1964. He later built a close relationship with Jiang Zemin, a former schoolmate from Shanghai who rose to become president of China and who 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 companies. Both were directors of the holding company of China State Shipbuilding, a government-owned company that makes ships for the Chinese military, as well as Foremost Group and other customers. Ms. Chao was also a former board member of the Bank of China, one of the shipbuilder's top lenders, and a former vice chairman of the Council of China's Foreign Trade, a promotional group founded by the Chinese government.

“Although she was born in America, she never forgot her roots and spent her life helping build bridges of understanding between East and West,” Mr. Chao said in a statement about his daughter.

“Losing her at such a young age is something we could never have imagined, and our entire family has been devastated by grief,” he said.

Angela Chao, the youngest of six daughters, was born in 1973 in Syosset, NY, on the north shore of Long Island, and raised in Harrison, NY, an affluent city in Westchester County. She graduated from Harvard College in 1994 and completed her studies in three years.

After a brief stint in finance at Smith Barney, she joined the family business in 1996 and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. As CEO of Foremost Group, Ms. Chao highlighted orders for new, more environmentally friendly ships that can run on alternative fuels.

“As a little girl growing up, I was always fascinated by what my father did,” she said in a 2019 interview.

“I was always very proud to be part of this legacy,” she added.

The Chao family's business ties to China drew attention when Elaine Chao was Secretary of Transportation under President Trump, who imposed broad tariffs on imports from China. A 2021 report from the Department of Transportation's inspector general said that Elaine Chao had used her office staff to help members of her family, but two Justice Department branches declined to open a criminal investigation.

Angela Chao denied in the 2019 interview that Foremost had a focus on China beyond what most dry bulk carriers have in a world where China is by far the leading manufacturer.

She was advisory director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and a member of the Chairman's Council of the Metropolitan Art Museum. She was also a founding member of the Asian American Foundation, which opposes discrimination, defamation and violence against Asian Americans, and co-chaired its education committee.

Ms. Chao married Bruce Wasserstein, an American financier, shortly before his death in 2009. Jim Breyera venture capitalist in Austin, Texas, who is also part owner of the Boston Celtics.

Journalist Lally Weymouth said she met Ms. Chao around the time of Mr. Wasserstein's death, comforting her new friend at dinner parties in Manhattan.

“In this tough town, she was genuine,” said Ms. Weymouth, the daughter of the late Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post. “She got along with everyone.”

In addition to her father and Elaine Chao, Mrs. Chao is survived by three other sisters, her husband and their three-year-old son.

Siyi Zhao research contributed.