White House picks Bryson to lead Commerce

White House picks Bryson to lead Commerce    President Obama on Tuesday announced his intent to nominate John Bryson as the next secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Bryson

   Bryson will replace Gary Locke, who was recently nominated to serve as the country's next ambassador to China.
'John will be an important part of my economic team, working with the business community, fostering growth, and helping open up new markets abroad to promote jobs and opportunities here at home,' Obama said in a statement.

Locke

         Bryson is expected to continue the ongoing effort to meet the president's goal of doubling America's exports to support millions of American jobs, the White House said.
   From 1990 to 2008, Bryson was chairman and chief executive officer of Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison and Edison Mission Group.
   He currently serves as director of Boeing, Walt Disney and Coda Automotive, and is a senior advisor to KKR. He is board chairman of BrightSource Energy, the Public Policy Institute of California, and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California Board of Overseers. He also serves as co-chairman of the Pacific Council on International Policy.
   Bryson is a trustee of the California Institute of Technology and a director of The California Endowment and the W. M. Keck Foundation. He serves on the advisory board of Deutsche Bank Americas. He also previously served on a number of educational and environmental boards, including as chairman of the California Business Roundtable, co-chairman of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, trustee of Stanford University, and as a member of the U.N. Secretary-General's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change.
   In addition, Bryson served as president of the California Public Utilities Commission, chairman of the California State Water Resources Control Board, and on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. At the start of his career, he was a co-founder and attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national and international environmental group.