US President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Indian-origin civil rights lawyer Kalpana Kotagal and certified public accountant Vinay Singh to key positions in the administration, the White House said on Friday, 1 April.
While Kotagal is being nominated for the post of Commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Singh is the nominee for the position of Chief Financial Officer, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
About Kalpana Kotagal
The daughter of Indian immigrants, 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, the statement read.
She co-authored the seminal legal template, the 'Inclusion Rider'. Kotagal is a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert, representing disenfranchised people in employment and civil rights litigation, which involve 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.
She was a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow. She was named an '"Employment Law MVP' by Law360 in 2018, recognising the top five most influential employment lawyers in the United States.
Kotagal sits on the A Better Balance and Public Justice Foundation's board of directors. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Alumni Advisory Board on Equity & Inclusion at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a member of the American Constitution Society Task Force on #MeToo in the Legal Profession, and serves on the advisory board of the People's Parity Project.
Kotagal earned her BS and an AB, with honors, from Stanford University and her JD, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to 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.
Who Is Vinay Singh?
A Certified Public Accountant, Vinay Singh, is currently a senior advisor to the Administrator at the US Small Business Administration (SBA), assisting agency teams to deliver organisational efficiencies to better serve US communities' small businesses. Singh has 25 years of private sector leadership experience with a deep understanding of finance, analytics, and strategy.
Prior to his role at the 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 organisational 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 (US Field), a statement from The White House stated.
He had also played a key role in leading trade and investment policy and promotion efforts to better market conditions for US companies. In his early years as a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Project Management Professional (PMP), Singh had helped several companies improve operational and financial performance. He holds an MBA from Widener University.
In late March, Biden had nominated two Indian-Americans – Puneet Talwar and Shefali Razdan Duggal – as US envoys. While Talwar was nominated as his Morocco envoy, Duggal was nominated as nominated as the country's envoy to Netherlands.
Earlier, the US president had also announced that his government had appointed Indian-American public health expert Dr Ashish Jha as his COVID-19 Response Coordinator.
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