Louis E. Caldera

Louis Caldera is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He teaches Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required first-year course in the MBA program. He has previously taught law school courses on corporate governance and legislative and democratic process, and his interests include strengthening democratic institutions, increasing economic opportunity, and building climate resilience.
 
Caldera is a corporate director and civic and nonprofit leader. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy, he began his public service career as an Army officer. He then earned business and law degrees from Harvard University (MBA/JD ’87). He practiced banking and corporate law in Los Angeles before being elected to the California Legislature, where for five years he championed the interests of a multiracial, working-class district centered around downtown Los Angeles. Caldera chaired the Assembly Banking Committee and authored significant legislation on children's health and safety. In 1997, Caldera joined the Clinton administration as COO of the Corporation for National Service; in 1998, he was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve as Secretary of the Army. As Secretary, he introduced a vision of the Army as a more digital, versatile, and rapidly deployable force prepared to meet 21st century security challenges. He revamped Army marketing programs to reverse recruitment shortfalls, secured increased funding to modernize weapons platforms, and created the first distance education program for servicemembers.
 
Caldera next became a vice chancellor for the California State University system. In 2003, he was named president of the University of New Mexico and appointed to the law school faculty. In 2008, Caldera joined the transition team for President-Elect Obama; he served in the Obama White House as an Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office. Returning to work on educational policy and philanthropy, he led efforts to promote opportunity for talented, low-income students at the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. He was also instrumental in helping to launch George Washington University's Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute. Most recently, he taught courses on legislative process and the law of democracy at American University’s Washington College of Law.
 
Caldera currently serves on the boards of Meritage Homes Corp., Granite Construction, Inc., and DallasNews Corp. He previously served on the board of Southwest Airlines Co. He sits on the nonprofit boards of the National World War II Museum, The Corps Network, and the Latino Corporate Directors Association. He is also the co-founder and co-chair of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a coalition of over 550 college and university presidents advocating for U.S. immigration policies that better serve their students, campuses, and communities. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior advisor to Foreign Policy for America.
 
Caldera has published opinion pieces and articles in the Washington Post, USA Today, the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the El Paso Times, and Military Times. He is frequently interviewed in English and Spanish on topics including national security, domestic policy, foreign affairs, U.S. courts, federal politics, and elections.

Born Luis Eduardo Caldera-Siqueiros to Mexican immigrant parents in El Paso, Texas, Caldera was raised in Whittier, California. He and his wife, Eva, now reside in Bethesda, Maryland, and have three adult daughters.