The selection this month of billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary designate continues a notable trend for President-elect Donald Trump, who has almost singularly eschewed conventional experience in government in favor of success in the private sector.
Ross, who served as chairman and founder of the private equity firm WL Ross and Co, is something of a turn-around specialist. His estimated $2.9 billion net worth was acquired through the purchasing of troubled companies in industries such as steel, textiles, coal, and auto parts and restructuring them. In 2002, he combined several troubled steel companies, including Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel and LTV Steel, into the International Steel Group. He later sold that company to Mittal Steel.
Ross was a political donor and longtime associate of the president-elect, helping Mr. Trump turn around his Taj Mahal casino company after it went bankrupt in the early 1990s.
Ross supports corporate tax reform to reduce pressures from foreign competition. Like Trump, Ross has criticized free trade deals in the past. The Department of Commerce main’s purpose is to create jobs and promote economic growth. Commerce oversees the country’s international trade rules and operations as diverse as the Patent and Trademark Office and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
