Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Witham / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Tom Vilsack interests me precisely because he is not flashy. Lawyer, mayor, governor of Iowa for eight years, then United States Secretary of Agriculture under two different presidents a decade apart. Being called back to the same demanding post by both Obama and Biden tells me something money cannot buy: institutional trust. Agriculture rarely makes headlines, yet it underpins everything, and choosing to spend a career on that quiet machinery says a lot about temperament. I tend to respect public servants measured by continuity rather than spectacle, and Vilsack is a textbook case of durable, low-drama competence.
Overview
Thomas James Vilsack (; born December 13, 1950) is an American politician. He served as the 30th and 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 to 2017, during the Barack Obama administration, and again from 2021 to 2025 during the Joe Biden administration. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 40th Governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Tom Vilsack
- Name (Japanese)
- トマス・ジェイムズ・ヴィルサック
- Reading
- とます・じぇいむず・ゔぃるさっく
- Born
- December 13, 1950 (age 75)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Tiger
- Origin
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- politician / lawyer / governor / jurist / mayor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Hamilton College
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Politician — see all → · Lawyer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.