The chairman of Cerberus Capital Management LP, which is buying the Toledo Jeep Assembly Plant along with other Chrysler Group assets, likely won't need a map to find the company's Toledo operations.
John Snow, former U.S. Treasury secretary, is a Toledo native who grew up in the city.
At Cerberus, he works closely with Stephen Feinberg, who is chief executive officer of the private-equity firm.
Mr. Snow, 67, is no stranger to the industrial world: He is former chairman and chief executive officer of CSX Corp., the rail and transportation giant.
And he's no stranger to controversy, either. He was a high-ranking official in the Department of Transportation during the Gerald Ford administration in an era when trucking, airline, and rail industries were deregulated.
In his tenure as Treasury Department secretary, from 2003 to last year in the Bush Administration, he was regarded as a cheerleader for White House policies but was unable to garner congressional support for a number of President Bush's programs.
During Mr. Snow's confirmation hearings in the Senate, there were questions about CSX's record of tax losses and his sale of 120,000 shares of CSX stock just before a drop in share prices.
Mr. Snow was born Aug. 2, 1939, in Toledo, and spent most of his childhood in a home on Scottwood Avenue in the Old West End.
His father, William Snow, was a tax attorney for 38 years and for a time was general counsel of the National Congress of Petroleum Retailers.
His mother, Catherine, taught in the Toledo school system for 43 years, and his grandmother, Sue Snow, was a teacher and principal in the local school system.
Mr. Snow attended the former Nazareth Hall Military School near Grand Rapids for a time and graduated from the University of Toledo in 1962 with a degree in economics.
He later got a PhD in economics from the University of Virginia and a law degree from George Washington University in Washington.
He has returned to Toledo on a number of occasions in recent years, including a commencement at UT in May, 2003, at which he was the speaker.
Contact Homer Brickey at:
homerbrickey@theblade.com
or 419-724-6129.
First Published May 15, 2007, 1:07 p.m.
