Bill Richardson

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III was elected governor of New Mexico in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Richardson was born in California but raised mostly in Mexico City. He received bachelor's (1970) and master's (1971) degrees from Tufts University, then worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. By the end of the 1970s he was a New Mexico resident with political ambitions, and in 1982 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1997. During the administration of President Bill Clinton he served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1997-98) and as Secretary of Energy (1998-2001). After Clinton's term ended, Richardson lectured, served on corporate boards and worked as a consultant with Kissinger McLarty Associates (headed by Henry Kissinger and former Clinton chief of staff Thomas McLarty). As governor of New Mexico, Richardson has remained a national figure in the Democratic party and is one of the most prominent Hispanic politicians in the U.S. (his mother is Mexican). Richardson ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008. That December he was chosen by president-elect Barack Obama to become Secretary of Commerce, but Richardson withdrew his name early in 2009, saying that his administration was being investigated in relation to a company that had done business with New Mexico, and that the investigation would have delayed his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Extra credit: After leaving the Clinton administration he served on a number of corporate boards, including that of San Diego's Peregrine Systems (2001-02). The company was led by his wife's brother-in-law, Stephen Gardner. While Richardson was on the board, Peregrine executives covered up accounting fraud that led to the company's bankruptcy as well as criminal charges against Gardner.