Portia Wu, of Chevy Chase, who was an advisor to former President Barack Obama, will be Governor-Elect Wes Moore’s secretary of labor, he announced Thursday.
Wu was managing directing of U.S. Public Policy at Microsoft, where she worked since 2017.
She has spent her career developing and implementing policies for workers, according to a news release from Moore’s office. She also served as assistant secretary for employment training at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she oversaw federal programs concerning employment service and job training. She also led the agency’s implementation of its bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2015.
Wu worked at the White House Domestic Policy Council as Special Assistant and Senior Policy Advisor to President Barack Obama for Labor and Workforce.
She has a degree in comparative literature from Cornell University and a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School. Wu was born in Connecticut to Taiwanese parents.
