Bodman III, Samuel Wright (1938– )

US Republican politician, energy secretary from 2005. An experienced financier and business executive, he was deputy secretary of commerce 2001–03 and deputy secretary of the treasury in 2004 in the Republican administrations of President George W Bush.

In January 2005 he replaced Spencer Abraham as energy secretary and continued his predecessor's efforts to improve the USA's energy security, through modernizing the energy infrastructure and developing nuclear power and renewables.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Ohio, he studied chemical engineering at Cornell University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). He taught at M.I.T. for six years before moving into the private sector. He became president and chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments in 1983 and chairman of Cabot Corporation in the later 1980s.