Dan Glickman served in the Clinton administration as secretary of agriculture from 1995 to 2001. Prior to accepting that position, he served as a congressman from Kansas for eighteen years, from 1977 to 1995.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1944, Glickman earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1966 and his law degree from George Washington University in 1969. He went to work as a trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1969 to 1970.

In 1970, he became an officer of Glickman, Inc., a family business specializing in recycling metals. From 1971 until he was elected to Congress in 1976, Glickman practiced law with the firm of Sargent, Klenda and Glickman. He then practiced law in Washington, D.C., with the firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.