Gary Locke

Gary Faye Locke (Chinese: 骆家辉; born January 21, 1950) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first American of Chinese descent governor as well as the first Asian American governor in the contiguous United States. During the Obama administration, Locke served as Secretary of Commerce from 2009 to 2011, and as Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2014, the first Chinese American to serve in the role. First elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1982, Locke went on to become King County executive in 1993 before being elected governor in the 1996 election. A former prosecutor by profession, Locke staked out a reputation as a moderate Democrat during his tenure. Reelected in the 2000 gubernatorial election, Locke was chosen by national Democrats to give the party's response to President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address. Locke declined to run for reelection in 2004. From June 2020 until July 2023, Locke served as interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Since 2021, Locke has served as the chairman of the Committee of 100.