He succeeds former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, a millionaire Trump appointee who resigned from the post early last month and the wife of U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former longtime Senate majority leader.
Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University, who attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, and he is a former intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve.
He is also a Afghanistan War veteran.
He was mayor of South Bend from 2012-2018, when he decided against seeking a third term
As a 2020 candidate for the Democratic nomination for president Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucuses and placed a close second in the New Hampshire primary, becoming the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential primary or caucus.
He quit the presidential race last March and endorsed Biden, who went on to become the Democratic nominee, and ultimately the nation's 46th president.
