India-born Carlos Cordeiro is new president of the United States Soccer Federation

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India-born American Carlos Cordeiro has been elected as the president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), according to The New York Times.

Cordeiro, 61, will be taking the place of Sunil Gulati who had been the president since 2006 and announced in December that he will not run for another term.

As president, Cordeiro intends to take U.S. Soccer to the next level “to achieve our vision of growing the game and making soccer the preeminent sport in America” while thinking bigger and aiming higher.

“I think we are at an inflection point in soccer history in this country. I think we have an opportunity to really transform it into a No. 1 sport. I think the demographics favor that,” Cordeiro told The New York Times.

According to his website, Cordeiro wants to strengthen the sport by growing the game at all levels, developing world-class national teams and ensuring open, inclusive and transparent leadership.

On his website Cordeiro says that he is a business executive who is now retired but has had more than 30 years of experience in international finance.

“I became a partner at Goldman Sachs in the early 1990s and was later appointed Vice Chairman-Asia where I advised governments, global corporations, and international financial institutions,” he states on his website.

Cordeiro has also been an independent director with BHP Billiton from 2005 to 2015, where he focused on governance, finance and risk management, according to his website.

Cordeiro has been a life-long soccer fan.

He has served as an unpaid volunteer to USSF for the past 10 years along with being the vice president of the organization since 2016.

“I have also served as Treasurer, Chair of the Budget Committee, Director of the U.S. Soccer Foundation and the Federation’s first Independent Director.  In addition, I represent U.S. Soccer on the CONCACAF Council and FIFA’s Stakeholders Committee,” he says on his website.

Cordeiro’s mother is Colombian and his father is Portuguese, but he himself was born in India and came to the U.S. in 1956 when he was 15 years old.

He then became an American citizen 10 years later and went to Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

As a philanthropist, he has “supported nonprofit causes that reflect my commitment to education and healthcare” while he held director-level positions at many charities.

According to The New York Times, Cordeiro took his position immediately and although his term as vice president ran through 2020, there is no report of whether a special election will be held for his replacement.

The New York Times reported that “the combined United States-Canada-Mexico bid to host the 2026 World Cup is due in a month; a men’s national team coach needs to be hired; technical directors will probably be hired for the national teams; and the federation is a defendant in a number of lawsuits.”

(This story was updated with corrections and revisions, on March 1, 2018)