The first event of the Economic Club’s 31st season, a luncheon held on July 25, featured Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. When asked by Club President David Rubenstein why he gave up a successful Wall Street career to become Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Ross explained, “. . . this country’s been very good to me. My mother was a third-grade schoolteacher in the public school I went to for grammar school. Father died when I was a teenager, so I kind of put myself through school. And things turned out very well. So I wanted to take this opportunity to give a little bit back.” Secretary Ross also discussed what it was like to be on the campaign trail with Presidential candidate Donald Trump. He said, “We would go to a town for a rally, and get there maybe at 1:00 in the morning, couple hours late. There’d be 1,500 people around the hangar at the airport waiting for him. And unlike the other candidate, it wasn’t because Bon Jovi was there or some famous star. They were there to see the candidate.” Secretary Ross went on to describe the Administration’s priorities for the Department of Commerce, the reasons why the North American Free Trade Agreement is obsolete and must be updated through renegotiation, his work on Wall Street, and his job as Secretary.
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