Angela Chao (March 4, 1973 – February 11, 2024) was an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businesswoman who was the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the Foremost Group.

Early life and education

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

heritage, Chao was born in

Syosset, New York Syosset is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place in the Oyster Bay (town), New York, Town of Oyster Bay, in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, in New York (state ...

, and grew up in

Harrison, New York Harrison is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town and Administrative divisions of New York (state), village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York Cit ...

. Her father was James S. C. Chao, who founded Foremost Group in 1964. Her mother was Ruth Mulan Chu Chao.Paid Notice: Deaths: Chao, Ruth Mulan Chu
''The New York Times'', August 8, 2007, She was the youngest of six sisters, one of whom is

Elaine Chao Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American businesswoman and former government official who served as United States secretary of labor in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009 and as United States secretary of transpor ...

, former US Secretary of Transportation. Her parents were born in mainland China, but fled to Taiwan in 1949 due to the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

. Her father came to the United States in 1958, while her mother and three oldest sisters moved to the United States in 1961. At the age of nine, Chao began joining her father on ship visits. Chao went to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

for her undergraduate degree, which she completed in three years, graduating ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' with a degree in economics in 1994. She went on to receive her MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Career

Chao worked in mergers and acquisitions at

Smith Barney Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is an American Multinational corporation, multinational financial services corporation specializing in Broker, retail brokerage. It is the wealth & asset management division of Morgan Stanley. On January 13, 2009, ...

, now a part of

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

. She joined their family business Foremost Group in 1996, where she succeeded her father as CEO in 2018. Foremost Group operates a global fleet of

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

s. As CEO, she became interested in adding more environmentally sustainable vessels that can burn

alternative fuel Alternative fuels, also known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are fuels derived from sources other than petroleum. Alternative fuels include gaseous fossil fuels like propane, natural gas, methane, and ammonia; biofuels like biodies ...

s to the company's roster. She served as a member of the board of the

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Banco da China'') is a state-owned Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, Beijing, China. It is one of ...

, a vice chair of the Council of China's Foreign Trade and a director of the

China State Shipbuilding Corporation The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is a state-owned shipbuilding conglomerate of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Background CSSC is one of the top 10 defence groups in the PRC. It consists of various shipyards, equip ...

, a

Chinese government The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

-owned enterprise that makes ships for the

Chinese military The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four services—Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force—and four arms— Aerospace ...

, Foremost Group and other customers. She was a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. Chao was a founding member of the Asian American Foundation and the co-chair of its education committee.

Personal life

Chao married

Bruce Wasserstein Bruce Jay Wasserstein (December 25, 1947 – October 14, 2009) was an American investment banker, businessman, and writer. He was prominent in the mergers and acquisitions industry, credited with working on 1,000 transactions with a total value ...

in January 2009, before his death in October of that year. She married

Jim Breyer James W. Breyer (born July 1961) is an American venture capitalist, founder and chief executive officer of Breyer Capital, an investment and venture philanthropy firm, and a former managing partner at Accel Partners, a venture capital firm. Brey ...

in 2012; the couple had a son three years prior to her death. Chao and Breyer had moved to the Austin area during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. They bought a mansion in

downtown Austin Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas, United States. The area of the district is bound by Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (Austin), Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, Inte ...

and a ranch in Johnson City. They had previously split their time between New York City and San Francisco, but before their son was born, they decided to raise him in Austin.

Death

On the evening of February 10, 2024, Chao was celebrating the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars or, informally, lunisolar calendars. Lunar calendar years begin with a new moon and have a fixed number of lunar months, usually twelve, in contrast to lunisolar calendar ye ...

with friends at her Johnson City ranch. As her guests began leaving, at around 11:30 p.m., she got into her

Tesla Model X The Tesla Model X is a battery electric mid-size luxury crossover SUV built by Tesla, Inc. since 2015. Developed from the full-sized sedan platform of the Tesla Model S, the vehicle notably uses falcon wing doors for rear passenger access. ...

and accidentally backed into a pond. The car began sinking, and Chao was unable to open her door or break the glass as the car filled with water. Chao was on the phone for eight minutes as the car sank, from around 11:42 to 11:50 p.m., telling her friend she was going to die. Onlookers called 911 and attempted to help. Blanco County emergency personnel arrived around midnight and tried to extricate her from the submerged car. A deputy broke the driver's door window, found Chao, and dragged her to shore.

EMS Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

workers delivered "advanced life support" for 43 minutes but were unable to revive her. She was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. on February 11; she was 50 years old. A March 2024 police investigation concluded that Chao "had a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.233 grams per 100 milliliters, above the legal limit in Texas of .08 grams per 100 milliliters". The investigation also concluded that Chao's death was the result of an accident. The design of the Tesla Model X's reverse gear has previously been criticized by some users as confusing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chao, Angela 1973 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen Alcohol-related deaths in Texas American businesspeople in shipping American chief executives American people of Chinese descent American people of Taiwanese descent American women chief executives Businesspeople from Texas Chao family Driving under the influence Harvard Business School alumni Harvard College alumni Businesspeople from Austin, Texas People from Harrison, New York People from Syosset, New York Road incident deaths in Texas Deaths by drowning in Texas