Maria Cino (born April 19, 1957) is an American public servant and political operative of the Republican Party. She served in the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

and served as acting

United States Secretary of Transportation The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...

during the George W. Bush administration.

Early life

Cino was born in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

on April 19, 1957. She grew up in Buffalo in an "Italian Catholic Democratic union household". Cino is a graduate of St. John Fisher College in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

Career

Cino served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative

Bill Paxon Leon William Paxon (born April 29, 1954) is an American lobbyist and former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. From 1989 to 1999, he served five terms in Congress. Early life Paxon was born in Akron, New Yo ...

. From 1993 to 1997, Cino served as the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the

National Republican Congressional Committee The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is the United States Republican Party, Republican Hill committee which works to elect Republicans to the United States House of Representatives. The NRCC was formed in 1866, when the Repub ...

(NRCC), managing the organization's strategy, budget and daily operations. She helped lead the Republican Party to congressional victories in the 1994 election cycle. In 1999 and 2000, Cino served as national political director for the presidential campaign of

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

. She was also the RNC's deputy chair for political and congressional relations in 2000, and she served as RNC deputy chair in 2003 and 2004.

United States Department of Commerce

President

appointed Cino to serve as assistant secretary and director general of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service; in that capacity, "she supervised 1,700 employees and had a budget of $200 million".

United States Department of Transportation

Cino was nominated by President

as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on April 6, 2005, and was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on May 11, 2005. After

Norman Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta (, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the cabinet of the United States for US Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. ...

's departure in July 2006, Cino served as acting

for a short time. Mary Peters was sworn in as Mineta's successor on September 30, 2006.

Later work

Cino served as president and chief executive officer of the 2008 Republican National Convention. In December 2010, Cino announced her candidacy for chair of the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...

in the RNC's January 2011 election. The contest was won by

Reince Priebus Reinhold Richard "Reince" Priebus ( ; born March 18, 1972) is an American politician, attorney, and naval officer who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2011 to 2017 and as White House chief of staff during the first s ...

, and Cino finished third. In 2012, Cino was appointed as Vice President of Americas and U.S. Government Relations for

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas. It is a business-focused organization which works in servers, storage, networking, containerization software and ...

. In 2020, Cino was named to The Hill's Top 100 Lobbyists list.

Board memberships

Cino has served as a board member of The WISH List, a group seeking to elect pro-choice Republican women. She considers herself "pro-life" (part of the United States anti-abortion movement) and is also interested in increasing the numbers of Republican women holding office.

References

External links

Maria Cino - Deputy Secretary of Transportation - Biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cino, Maria 1957 births American people of Italian descent Living people New York (state) Republicans Politicians from Buffalo, New York St. John Fisher University alumni United States Department of Transportation officials United States deputy secretaries of transportation