1. Louis Edward Caldera was born on April 1,1956 and is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the director of the White House Military Office from January to May 2009, as the 17th United States Secretary of the Army from July 1998 to January 2001 and as a California State Assemblyman from January 1992 to January 1997.
The son of Mexican immigrants Soledad and Benjamin Caldera, Caldera was born on April 1,1956, in El Paso, Texas.
Louis Caldera's family left Texas for California when he was 4 years old, living briefly in public housing in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles before moving to the suburb of Whittier.
Louis Caldera earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1978 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, then served on active duty from 1978 to 1983, mostly at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Louis Caldera served as a California State Assemblyman from 1992 to 1997, representing the nearly 400,000 residents of California's 46th State Assembly district, which is located in and around downtown Los Angeles.
On July 2,1998, Louis Caldera was sworn in as the 17th Secretary of the Army by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
Louis Caldera went on to serve as Vice Chancellor for University Advancement in the California State University System, the largest four-year university system in the country.
Louis Caldera became the 18th president of the University of New Mexico in August 2003, and left that position in January 2006.
Louis Caldera's selection was controversial, considering there was a lack of faculty approval prior to his official selection.
Still, others chose to point out that Louis Caldera had more than a few conflicts of interest as a former Secretary of the Army and as a member of several corporate boards.
Louis Caldera served on the board of directors of IndyMac Bank from 2002 until its failure, and subsequent seizure by the government, in July 2008.
Louis Caldera served on the board of directors for Southwest Airlines until he submitted his resignation, effective January 15,2009, in connection with his selection to serve as director of the White House Military Office.
In June 2010 Louis Caldera was appointed to the role of Vice President of Programs for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a non-profit organization that has awarded 1,200 scholarships totaling more than $60 million to high-achieving low-income students, and has given more than $46 million in grants to nonprofit organizations that have similar missions.
Louis Caldera is President of "Louis Caldera Associates", where he "provide consulting services to for-profit and non-profit clients in the national security, education, philanthropic and human services delivery sectors".
Louis Caldera is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law and a Senior Affiliate in the Program on Law and Government at American University Washington College of Law.