United States President Joe Biden named Amit Jani as the acting White House liaison at the US Department of Homeland Security, according to a report by Politico.
Indian American, Jani was the national Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) director for Biden's presidential campaign and has worked with several lawmakers such as New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Senator Bob Menendez. He was also the Director of the Chief Information Officer action group at the Pentagon prior to his recent post atthe Homeland Security.
In 2019, Jani joined the Biden campaign as AAPI national director and left his post as the legislative liaison at the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
As a Jersey City resident, Jani also worked as an account executive for Vision Media Marketing, a political consulting firm. Having started out as a youth organizer, he served as an aide to Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. and as a member of the Hudson County Schools of Technology Board of Education.
In 2017, Jani went on to become the director of AAPI Outreach for Phil Murphy's gubernatorial campaign. He also held the same position on US Senator Bob Menendez's re-election campaign in 2018.
Jani arrived in the US at the age of one with his mother and was born in Rajkot, Gujarat. He had been a long time resident of New Jersey which happens to be one of the largest states with Indian American population in the US.
Jani's late father Suresh Jani, was also a prominent person in the Indian American community advocating for new immigrants and assisting those Indians who had recently entered the US. Deepti Jani, his mother is a businesswoman in her own right in New Jersey and New York and owns a deli and convenience stores.
(With inputs from American Bazaar, Politico)
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