Kalpana Kotagal to serve on Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Vinay Singh as CFO in Housing & Urban Development Department
President Joe Biden is naming two Indian Americans to serve as key leaders in his administration, one on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the other in Housing & Urban Development Department (HUD).
Biden intends to nominate Kalpana Kotagal, a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert, as Commissioner on the EEOC and Vinay Singh as Chief Financial Officer at HUD, the White House announced Friday.
The daughter of immigrants from India, 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, according to her official profile.
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Co-author of the seminal legal template the “Inclusion Rider,†Kotagal was a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow and was named an “Employment Law MVP†by Law360 in 2018, recognizing the top five most influential employment lawyers in the United States.
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.
Kotagal sits on the Boards of Directors of A Better Balance and Public Justice Foundation. She is 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.
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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. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two sons.
Vinay Singh, nominee for CFO at HUD is currently a Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the US Small Business Administration (SBA), assisting agency teams to deliver organizational efficiencies to better serve our communities’ small businesses.
A Certified Public Accountant, Singh has 25 years of private sector leadership experience with a deep understanding of finance, analytics, and strategy.
Prior to 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.
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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). He 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 helped several companies improve operational and financial performance. He holds an MBA from Widener University.