President Biden Nominates 2 Indian Americans, Vinay Singh and Kalpana Kotagal, to Key Positions
- Vinay Singh is nominated as the chief financial officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Kalpana Kotagal is chosen as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
President Biden has nominated two Indian Americans to serve as key leaders in his administration. While Vinay Singh is Biden’s choice for the position of the chief financial officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Kalpana Kotagal is nominated as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Singh, a Certified Public Accountant, has 25 years of private-sector leadership experience with a deep understanding of finance, analytics, and strategy, according to a White House press release. He is currently a senior advisor to the administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). In that role, “he assists agency teams to deliver organizational efficiencies to better serve our communities’ small businesses,” the White House said.
Before his role at SBA, Singh was a partner and Chief Operating Officer for the Infrastructure practice at KPMG in India. As a senior member of the executive team, he led several organizational transformation projects, leveraging technology to improve profitability and decision-making. As lead partner for the World Bank Group account, he supported global sustainability projects focused on solving urban and rural challenges in housing, water, energy, and economic development.
Previously, Singh served in the Obama-Biden administration as a deputy assistant secretary (U.S. Field). He played a key role in leading trade and investment policy and promotion efforts to better market conditions for U.S. companies. In his early years as a Certified Information Systems Auditor and Project Management Professional, he has helped several companies improve operational and financial performance. He holds an MBA from Widener University.
Kotagal is a partner at Cohen Milstein, a member of the firm’s Civil Rights & Employment practice group, and co-chair of the firm’s Hiring and Diversity Committee. She is co-author of the seminal legal template the “Inclusion Rider.” “A diversity, equity, and inclusion expert, she represents disenfranchised people in employment and civil rights litigation involving issues related to Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the White House said.
A Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow, she was named an “Employment Law MVP” by Law360 in 2018, recognizing the top five most influential employment lawyers in the United States. She sits on the boards of directors of A Better Balance and Public Justice Foundation and is co-chair of the Alumni Advisory Board on Equity & Inclusion at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a member of the American Constitution Society Task Force on #MeToo in the Legal Profession. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the People’s Parity Project.
Kotagal earned her B.S. and an A.B., with honors, from Stanford University and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Before joining Cohen Milstein, Kotagal served as a law clerk to the Honorable Betty Binns Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two sons.