Indian American Ronnie Chatterji to Depart From White House Job and Return to Teaching at Duke University
- He joined the commerce department during the height of the supply chain crisis and played a pivotal role in the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act.
Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji is leaving the White House where he served as coordinator at National Economic Council (NEC), and is returning to his post as a business professor at Duke University, Politico has reported. The Indian American played a pivotal role in the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act. Politico describes him as “a key adviser in the Biden administration’s effort to overcome the global microchips shortage and manage a deluge of congressional funding to expand America’s semiconductor industry.
Further commenting on the departure, Politico said it “comes as the Biden administration’s semiconductor strategy has evolved from a frenzied search for a short-term fix to the global chips shortage to placing long-term bets on U.S.-based manufacturing facilities in an effort to depend less on suppliers in Taiwan, which has become a political liability amid rising tensions with China.”
Chatterji joined the Commerce Department as chief economist just a few months into Biden’s term and moved to the NEC last year where he served as the White House Coordinator for CHIPS Implementation. He “managed the work of the CHIPS Implementation Steering Council,” and “worked closely with the National Security Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Commerce and the Steering Council to ensure effective interagency coordination,” the White House said.
After his appointment in June 2021 as chief economist of the United States Department of Commerce, Chatterji took a leave of absence from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where he was the Mark Burgess and Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor. He previously worked in President Obama’s administration as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
In a statement sent to Politico, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo described Chatterji as “an incredible asset” to the administration, adding she “relied on his expertise and guidance to help make major strides in bolstering America’s supply chains, strengthening our national security, and creating good jobs across America.”
At Duke, Chatterji’s research explored the intersection of public policy and business, including a focus on the drivers that enable success for innovative firms and new startups. His work has been published in top journals in strategic management, economics, finance and organizational studies. He received the 2017 Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship, the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute, and the Strategic Management Society Emerging Scholar Award, as well as numerous teaching awards.
He was previously a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. Chatterji and his wife, Neely, have three children.