Carlos Gutierrez will be the new Commerce Secretary:

President Bush on Monday chose Carlos Gutierrez, a native of Cuba who rose from truck driver to chief executive officer of Kellogg Co. (K), to be secretary of Commerce.

If confirmed by the Senate, Gutierrez would succeed Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, a Texas confidant of Bush's, who announced his resignation shortly after the Nov. 2 election. The president called the 51-year-old Gutierrez, 51, a "great American success story" and a visionary executive, who understands the world of business from the "first rung on the ladder to the very top."

"Carlos's family came to America from Cuba when he was a boy," Bush said in the Roosevelt Room. "He learned English from a bellhop in a Miami hotel and later became an American citizen. When his family eventually settled in Mexico City, Carlos took his first job for Kellogg as a truck driver, delivering Frosted Flakes to local stores."

Gutierrez, who was joined by his wife, son and two daughters, is the first new member of Bush's economics team for his second term. Bush's chief economics adviser, Stephen Friedman, announced last week that he is leaving. Other changes also are anticipated, although Treasury Secretary John Snow would like to stay.