John William Snow (born August 2, 1939) is the current and 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury who replaced departing Secretary Paul O'Neill on February 3, 2003.

Career

He was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 13, 2003 and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate.

Snow was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CSX. Snow's previous public service includes having served at the Department of Transportation as Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Deputy Undersecretary, Assistant Secretary for the Governmental Affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Plans and International Affairs.

He was Chairman of the Business Roundtable, a business policy group comprised of 250 chief executive officers of the nation's largest companies, from 1994 through 1996 and played a major role in supporting passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He is a former co-chairman of the Conference Board's Blue-Ribbon Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise. He also served as co-chairman of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement in 1992 that made recommendations following the savings and loan crisis.

In May 2004, it was revealed that Snow's brokers had brought $10 million of debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without his knowledge in February 2003. When Snow found out, he divested the debts. A Treasury ethics lawyer has found that the holdings did not represent a conflict of interest but had the potential to do so in the future. [1] (http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?cat=USMARKET&src=201&feed=reu&section=news&news_id=reu-wat001357&date=20040526&alias=/alias/money/cm/nw/1)

Personal Life

John Snow was born in Toledo, Ohio, on August 2, 1939, and studied at Kenyon College and the University of Toledo, from where he graduated in 1962. He later earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia. Snow graduated with a law degree from the George Washington University in 1967 and then taught economics at the University of Maryland, University of Virginia, as well as law at George Washington. He also served as a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in 1977 and a Distinguished Fellow at the Yale School of Management from 1978 until 1980.

Snow lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife Carolyn. He has three children and three grandchildren.

Quotes

"The cost of the [Iraq] war will be small. We can afford the war, and we'll put it behind us."

-- As quoted in the New York Times, 3/9/03.

External link

• White House Biography (http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/snow-bio.html)
• Treasury Department Biography (http://www.treas.gov/organization/bios/snow-e.html)