Hindi and Gujarati speaking Rana is the fourth Indian American diplomat named as envoy in recent months
President Joe Biden intends to Indian American diplomat Gautam A. Rana, currently serves as Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Algeria as US Ambassador to the Slovak Republic.
Rana, a career member of the US Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of Counselor, is the fourth Indian American diplomat to be given an ambassadorial job by Biden in the last couple of months.
Read: Biden names Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen as envoy to Mali (April 18, 2022)
Rana, who speaks Hindi, Spanish, and Gujarati was also the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Algeria from August 2020 to February 2022, according to a White House announcement on May 25.
Among other positions, Rana was Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Council staff and the Deputy Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi.
Read: Biden names Indian American Puneet Talwar envoy to Morocco (March 20, 2022)
Rana also served as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and worked in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UAE.
Rana earned BA and BS degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from the Vanderbilt University School of Law and an MA from the National Defense University.
Last month Biden named Rachna Sachdeva Korhonen, Deputy Assistant Secretary and the Executive Director of the combined Executive Offices of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, as envoy to Mali.
Korhonen, who speaks Hindi, French, Finnish, and Arabic previously had an assignment at the US Consulate General in Mumbai, India.
Read: Biden names Shefali Razdan Duggal as envoy to Netherlands (March 14, 2022)
Before that Biden named a senior Indian American official, Puneet Talwar, his long time aide on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the US ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco.
Talwar has held senior national security and foreign policy positions in the State Department, White House, and United States Senate.
Read: President Biden Announces Key Nominees (May 25, 2022)
Earlier Biden had nominated Shefali Razdan Duggal, an Indian American political activist, and Democratic party fundraiser from California, as the US ambassador to the Netherlands.
A Kashmiri born in Haridwar, UP, India, Razdan Duggal, 50, moved to the US at a very young age and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A mother of two, she served as National Co-Chair of Women for Biden, and as a Deputy National Finance Chair at the Democratic National Committee.