11 Facts About Carmen Chu

Carmen Chu is an American politician serving as City Administrator of the City and County of San Francisco.

Carmen Chu previously served as the city's assessor-recorder, where she was the only Asian-American assessor elected to serve among the 58 counties in the State of California.

Carmen Chu is the second of three daughters to Hung Wing and Shuet Ying Carmen Chu, who immigrated from Hong Kong in the 1970s with ancestry in Taishan.

The Carmen Chu family settled into a number of jobs to make ends meet including initially working as a seamstress or as a restaurant worker before starting their own small family restaurant.

Carmen Chu has stated that growing up in an immigrant family and in a small business household were formative experiences in her life as she never forgot the struggles immigrants and those with limited English face nor the hardships associated with running a small business.

On February 6,2013, Carmen Chu was appointed by Mayor Ed Lee to serve as assessor-recorder; the post was left vacant after Phil Ting was sworn into the California State Assembly.

In November 2013, Carmen Chu successfully ran for election and became then the only San Francisco elected female representative in a citywide position.

In 2013 Carmen Chu turned over public marriage licenses that were invalidated in 2004 to the San Francisco Public Library's Archival Division to ensure the historic preservation of documents filed during a pivotal and defining moment in the movement for marriage equality.

Carmen Chu was nominated by Mayor London Breed to replace departing city administrator Naomi Kelly in January 2021.

Carmen Chu ran for election after Jew's term expired, and on November 4,2008, she was elected by the voters as supervisor of District 4 for the term January 2009 to January 2011.

Carmen Chu worked with the local Public Utilities Commission to develop the largest municipal solar project in the country at the time.