Title: US Treasury Secretary

Date of birth: December 4 1935, St. Louis, Missouri

Education: Bachelor's degree in Economics from Fresno State College, California, and a master's degree in Public Administration from Indiana University.

Background information: O'Neill was at the helm of Alcoa for 12 years and overhauled the company turning it into a conglomerate. He was chosen for the job when he was a non-executive member of the Alcoa board and president of International Paper, becoming the first outsider to run the company in its 112-year history.

When O'Neill sold his Alcoa shares, it made headline news in June 2001. He had originally refused to sell the stock of about $100m but relented following public criticism that the holdings would affect his actions in office.

The tale of O'Neill's high-profile return to Washington life - after a 23-year absence - appeared to revolve around two former colleagues: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Dick Cheney, vice-president. The three worked closely together in the Ford White House of the mid-1970s. At the time, Greenspan was chairman of the council of economic advisers, Cheney was White House chief of staff and O'Neill was deputy director of the budget office.