Angela Chao was chair and CEO of the family-owned Foremost Group, a New York-based shipping company, when she died at 50 in February 2024. She was the younger sister of former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and the sister-in-law of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Foremost initially announced her death as the result of a car accident; details about the circumstances came later in an Associated Press account of the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
Who was Angela Chao?
Chao was a shipping executive who led Foremost Group, the company founded by her father, James S. C. Chao. She built a career there over more than two decades, moving through operational and senior leadership positions before becoming chair and CEO in 2018. A separate chapter of her public profile came through her family: she was Elaine Chao’s younger sister and Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law.
Senator Susan Collins, in a statement issued February 13, 2024, identified Angela as the sister of Elaine Chao and sister-in-law of McConnell. Collins wrote, “The passing of Angela Chao is a tragedy.” Read Collins’s statement.
What did Foremost Group do?
Foremost Group describes itself as an American shipping company headquartered in New York that charters large vessels to carry dry-bulk products. Dry-bulk shipping moves unpackaged commodities in a ship’s hold. The company’s February 2024 statement says Chao grew up following her father aboard ships and later joined the business. Those descriptions of the company and her early connection to it come from Foremost itself.
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In the same statement, Foremost attributed this view of the business to Chao: “Angela believed that the foundational element of success is the belief that shipping is not an asset finance business, but that it’s about people.” Foremost’s announcement also said her father would return as chair and Michael Lee would assume the presidency. That was the company’s stated succession plan in February 2024, not confirmation of the company’s current leadership.
Her education and career at Foremost
A March 29, 2018 filing with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing gives a dated account of Chao’s education and professional roles. It records that she earned a Harvard College economics degree in 1994 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2001. Foremost’s later statement says she completed her Harvard economics degree magna cum laude in three years.
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The filing records her early career in mergers and acquisitions at Smith Barney, followed by increasingly senior jobs at Foremost:
| Period | Role or milestone recorded |
|---|---|
| 1994–1996 | Mergers and acquisitions work at Smith Barney |
| 1996–1999 | Deputy general manager at Foremost |
| 2001–2017 | Vice president, senior vice president, and deputy chair at Foremost |
| 2018 | Became chair and CEO of Foremost |
The chronology is the one documented in the 2018 filing; it should not be read as a complete account of any later changes in the company. View the HKEX filing.
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What happened to Angela Chao?
What the family announced
On February 12, 2024, Foremost Group announced Chao’s death with the words: “It is with deep sadness that Foremost Group announces the passing of Angela Chao in a tragic car accident.” The statement did not describe how the accident happened. Read the company’s announcement.
What the later investigation account reported
In a report published March 20, 2024, the Associated Press summarized findings of the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office investigation. AP reported that Chao drove a Tesla into a pond at a ranch near Johnson City, Texas, and that the sheriff’s office concluded her death was an “unfortunate accident.” The AP account reported a toxicology result of 0.233 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood; it gave the Texas legal limit as 0.08. These are findings as reported by AP from the sheriff’s investigation, not details included in Foremost’s initial announcement. Read the Associated Press report.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
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