The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce". Until 1913 there was one Secretary of Commerce and Labor, uniting this department with the Department of Labor, which is now headed by a separate Secretary of Labor.

The Office of the Secretary contains a Deputy Secretary of Commerce, a Chief of Staff, a Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, an Assistant Secretary for Commerce and Intergovernmental Affairs, a Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Secretary for Administration, a Chief Information Officer, a General Counsel, an Inspector General, an Office of Business Liaison, an Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, an Office of Public Affairs, an Office of White House Liaison, and an International IPR Enforcement Coordinator.

Gary Locke, former Commerce Secretary resigned on August 11, 2011, to become the United States Ambassador to China.

The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

Penny Sue Pritzker (born 1959) is an American business executive, and a member of the Pritzker family of Chicago, one of America's wealthiest business families. She is the founder and current Chair of Classic Residence by Hyatt, or Vi, a chain of luxury senior living communities spread throughout the United States, and the national finance chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In 2011 the Forbes 400 list of "America's wealthiest" showed her as the 263rd richest person in the U.S., estimated net worth of US $1.7 billion. Also in 2011 Forbes listed her as the world's 651st richest person.

On November 20, 2008, CNN reported that Pritzker was Barack Obama's top choice for Commerce Secretary, quoting "multiple" unnamed sources. However, it was later reported that because of her involvement in the failure of subprime lender Superior Bank, Pritzker took herself out of the running.

Born in 1959, Pritzker is a member of the Pritzker family, a notable and influential Jewish American business family. Pritzker is a daughter of Sue (Sandel) and Donald N. Pritzker (1932–1972), co-founder of the Hyatt hotel chain, which grew dramatically under his leadership as President from 1959 until his death in 1972. She attended Castilleja School until 1977. She earned a BA in Economics from Harvard College (1981), and a JD/MBA from Stanford University (1984).

Rebecca M. Blank (born September 9, 1955) is the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce. She held the role in an acting role since October 21, 2011, and was formally confirmed by the United States Senate on March 29, 2012. From July 2011 until October 2011, Rebecca Blank was the Acting United States Secretary of Commerce. A native of Missouri, Blank is a summa cum laude graduate in economics from the University of Minnesota and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prior to arriving at Commerce, Blank was the Robert S. Kerr Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan (UM), where she implemented a major expansion of its faculty and programs. She also served as co-director of UM’s National Poverty Center. From 1997–1999, Blank was one of three members of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, participating in White House decision-making on a host of economic, social and regulatory policy issues.

Barbara Hackman Franklin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, a private international consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. She is an advocate for and adviser to American companies doing business in international markets, notably China, and is an expert on corporate governance, auditing, and financial reporting practices.

As the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, she achieved the goal of increasing American exports, with emphasis on market-opening initiatives in China, Russia, Japan and Mexico. Her mission to China in 1992 normalized commercial relations with that country and removed one of the sanctions – the ban on ministerial contact – that the U.S. had imposed following the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Secretary Franklin has served on the board of directors of fourteen public companies and is currently a member of the board of Aetna, Inc. and The Dow Chemical Company. She is a trustee of three funds in the American Funds family of mutual funds and a member of the International Advisory Board of Lafarge, Paris, France. She has chaired a variety of board committees and has received the John J. McCloy Award for her "outstanding contributions to audit excellence" and has been recognized as a Director of the Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Outstanding Director Exchange (ODX), and by Directorship as "one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance". Franklin is a regular commentator on international economic matters and corporate governance on the PBS Nightly Business Report.