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(Photo: AP)
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Samuel Bodman, who served as deputy secretary in both the Commerce and Treasury departments during President Bush's first term, replaced Spencer Abraham as energy secretary in Mr. Bush's second-term cabinet.
Bodman has a chemical engineering background and once taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was named president and chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments and director of the Fidelity Group of Mutual Funds in 1983. Four years later, he went to Cabot Corp., a Boston chemical company, as chairman and chief executive.
He has had little experience in energy matters, but at his confirmation hearings, senators said his academic and business background make him well suited to head a department that oversees a wide range of research. During the hearings, Bodman promised to continue focusing on Mr. Bush's energy priorities. He expressed support for trying to develop oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and said he would continue a push to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Abraham, a former senator from Michigan, announced his resignation on Nov. 15, 2004. He attended Michigan State University and Harvard Law School. He became Vice President Dan Quayle's deputy chief of staff in 1990, and was elected to the Senate from Michigan in 1994. Until he was defeated in a re-election bid in November 2000, Abraham was the only Arab-American in the U.S. Senate.
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