IT Execs Make McCain's Short List For U.S. Treasury Secretary

By Jennifer Hagendorf Follett, CRN
October 07, 2008 10:32 PM ET

Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain Tuesday named former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers as potential Treasury secretaries under his administration.

McCain Tuesday night during a televised debate with Democratic candidate Barack Obama named Whitman and investor Warren Buffett as potential choices when asked who he would name as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury if he were to be elected president this fall.

McCain earlier Tuesday in an interview with Reuters also identified Chambers as a potential Treasury secretary.

"The first criteria would have to be somebody who immediately Americans identify with, immediately say they can trust that individual. A supporter of Senator Obama's is Warren Buffett. He's already weighed in and helped stabilize some of the difficulties in the market and with companies and corporations," McCain said during the debate. "I like Meg Whitman. She knows what it's like to be out there in the marketplace, she knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and now 1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay."

In the Reuters interview, McCain named Whitman and Buffett, as well as Chambers, as potential candidates for the U.S. Treasury secretary position currently held by Henry Paulson.

Both Chambers and Whitman are advisors to McCain. Buffett, as McCain noted, supports Obama.

Obama also during the debate said that Buffett "would be a pretty good choice."

While it's unclear whether Buffett or Whitman would consider taking on the task if asked by either presidential candidate, Chambers previously has said he will honor his commitment to Cisco's board to stay with the company for the next several years.

"I'm very honored that anybody would ever mention my consideration in government but I love what I'm doing now and I made a commitment to my board of directors and to my employees and shareholders about a year ago for another three to five years in this role, which I fully intend to maintain," Chambers said in a March interview with ChannelWeb.

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