Louis Caldera

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. Caldera graduated from Monte Vista High School in 1974.^[1] He 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. He went on to enroll at Harvard University and in 1987, earned a joint JD–MBA degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School respectively.

While studying at Harvard, he met his wife, Eva Orlebeke Caldera; together they have three daughters - Allegra, Sophia, and Camille, all of whom are Harvard undergraduates.

After graduating from Harvard, Caldera practiced law from 1987 to 1990 at O'Melveny & Myers, then from 1990 to 1991 at Buchalter, Nemer, Fields and Younger. From 1991 to 1992 he was a Deputy Counsel for Los Angeles County.

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. As an Assemblyman, he served as chairman of the Banking and Finance Committee, the Revenue and Taxation Committee, and the Budget Committee.

Before finishing his third term in the Assembly, Caldera resigned to begin serving as managing director and chief operating officer for President Bill Clinton's Corporation for National and Community Service (1997–1998), a domestic volunteer program.

On May 22, 1998, Clinton announced Caldera as his selection for Secretary of the Army.^[3] On July 2, 1998, Caldera was sworn in as the 17th Secretary of the Army by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.^[4]

He 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.

Caldera became the 18th president of the University of New Mexico (UNM) in August 2003, and left that position in January 2006. Caldera's selection was controversial, considering there was a lack of faculty approval prior to his official selection. The UNM General Faculty took a vote on the appointment of Caldera, and 78% voted against his appointment. Many students pointed out that he did not have a PhD, and would be in a position of overseeing PhD candidates. Still, others chose to point out that Caldera had more than a few conflicts of interest as a former Secretary of the Army and as a member of several corporate boards.^[5]

Caldera's contract with the University granted him an appointment as a tenured member of the University of New Mexico School of Law faculty, despite never having taught a law school course prior to his appointment.^[6][7]

Caldera served on the board of directors of IndyMac Bank from 2002 until its failure, and subsequent seizure by the government, in July 2008.^[8]

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.^[9]

In June 2010 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.^[10] Caldera left the Cooke Foundation in March 2012.

Caldera is now President of "Caldera Associates", where he "provide(s) consulting services to for-profit and non-profit clients in the national security, education, philanthropic and human services delivery sectors".^[11]

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 (WCL).^[12] Prior to joining WCL, Caldera taught courses in Legislation and Legislative Process, Election Law/Law of Democracy, State and Local Advocacy, and Corporate Governance at Loyola Law School, The University of New Mexico, and The George Washington University.