Washington: President Joe Biden has tapped Kiran Arjandas Ahuja, a civil rights lawyer, activist and Obama-era veteran, to lead the Office of Personnel Management, a department the Trump administration tried to kill but is now expected to take on a high-profile role.
Ahuja, 49, served as the personnel agency’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2017 as it faced fallout from a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of federal workers and contractors. Before that, she led the Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Obama White House.
Ahuja returned to federal personnel matters during the Biden transition as head of the team reviewing OPM and other agencies that deal with the federal workforce, taking a leave from her role as chief executive of Philanthropy Northwest, a regional philanthropic network of six northwestern states. Her nomination was announced Tuesday.
By Natalie Alms
Kiran Ahuja from her days as Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
President Joe Biden will nominate former Obama administration official Kiran Ahuja to be the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Ahuja led the Biden transition team on OPM and she s an agency veteran. She served as OPM s chief of staff 2015 to 2017. She also served as executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Obama White House. As part of that work, she led efforts to increase access to federal services for underserved communities of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Biden turns to Obama administration veteran to lead key federal personnel agency
Lisa Rein and Eric Yoder, The Washington Post
Feb. 23, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden has tapped Kiran Arjandas Ahuja, a civil rights lawyer, activist and Obama-era veteran, to lead the Office of Personnel Management, a department the Trump administration tried to kill but is now expected to take on a high-profile role.
Ahuja, 49, served as the personnel agency s chief of staff from 2015 to 2017 as it faced fallout from a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of federal workers and contractors. Before that, she led the Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Obama White House.