White House nominations of 2 Indian-Americans sent to U.S. Senate

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The White House sent two high-profile nominations of Indian-Americans to the U.S. Senate Apri 5, 2022.

President Biden nominated Kalpana Kotagal, of Ohio, to be a Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a term expiring July 1, 2027, vice Janet Dhillon, term expiring.

He nominated Vinay Vijay Singh, of Pennsylvania, to be Chief Financial Officer, Department of Housing and Urban Development, vice Irving Dennis.

Kotagal is a Partner at Cohen Milstein, a member of the firm’s Civil Rights & Employment practice group, and Chair of the firm’s Hiring and Diversity Committee, according to her profile on the company website.

Kotagal is co-author of the “Inclusion Rider,” which was referenced by Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand in her 2018 Best Actress acceptance speech.  Since then, it has been adopted by leaders across industries, including the Recording Academy, which announced the use of the Inclusion Rider in the production of the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, as well as JAMS, which included an Inclusion Rider option in its JAMS Domestic and International Clause Workbooks.

The Indian-American attorney is “A highly-acclaimed employment and civil rights plaintiffs’ litigator,” according to Cohen Milstein. She represents women and other disenfranchised people in employment and civil rights class actions, involving often cutting-edge issues related to the Title VII, Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Family Medical Leave Act, as well as wage and hour issues.  She has litigated in some high profile cases.

Singh is Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration since 2021.

Singh served as COO at KPMG India and served a stint in that country.

He was Deputy Assistant Secretary, Global Markets in the U.S. Department of Commerce during the Obama-Biden administration. Singh headed the Dscover Global Markets Business Forum Series, and the International Tede Administeation’s Smart City Task Force.

At the Department of Commerce, Singh led the U.S. Commercial service’s domestic operations, with offices in more than 90 cities.

Singh also worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers in a senior executive position, in which position he led multiple teams of federal employees and contractors to automate financial reporting functions, design, document and implement business processes, implement management governance frameworks, etc.

Prior to that, Singh was Director of Finance & Technology at Universal Technologies, Inc.