Alexis M Herman

Born in Mobile, Alabama; graduate of Xavier University. Worked for Catholic Charities prior to joining the Carter Administration as Director of the Women's Bureau. Left government service in 1980 to become an entrepreneur and labor relations expert. Appointed Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Public Liaison Office in 1993. Appointed by Bill Clinton. Priorities were a prepared workforce, a secure workforce, and quality workplaces. Facilitated negotiations between UPS management and Teamsters union leaders, ending ten day strike. Major issues included retooling DOL skills programs into a simpler, more efficient system; giving working people needed skills to succeed in the new economy; moving people from welfare to work; working with disadvantaged youth through the Youth Opportunity program. Ms. Herman serves as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of New Ventures LLC, a corporate consulting company, and has held these positions since 2001. She also serves as Chair of Toyota Motor Corporation's North American Diversity Advisory Board. She also serves as Chair of the Business Advisory Board of Sodexho, Inc., an integrated food and facilities management services company. As chair of the Company's Human Resources Task Force from 2001 to 2006, Ms. Herman worked with the Company to identify ways to improve its human resources policies and practices following the November 2000 settlement of an employment lawsuit. The seven-member Task Force assessed the Company's progress on specific human resource initiatives in annual reports to the court. From 1997 to 2001, she served as U.S. Secretary of Labor. Ms. Herman served in the Carter Administration as Director of the Women's Bureau from 1977 to 1981 and as Director of Public Liaison for the White House from 1992 to 1997. She is also a Director of Cummins Inc., Entergy Corporation and MGM Mirage.