- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN what is seen as another feat for the Indian-American community, US president Joe Biden has nominated Ashish Vazirani, a management consultant, to a key position in Pentagon, the country’s defence headquarters.
Currently the principal of A2O Strategies, LLC, where he gives advisory services to commercial and non-profit, high growth and big enterprises on development, implementation and execution of growth strategies, Vazirani has been nominated to the position of deputy under secretary of defence for personnel and readiness in the defence department. Gil Cisneros is the current under-secretary of defence who took charge last month.
Vazirani was recently the executive director and chief executive officer of the National Military Family Association (NMFA) where he gave strategic and operational oversight besides direction for all aspects of the NMFA’s advocacy and programming to back military families, the White House said earlier this week.
It was during his tenure that NMFA got a four-star charity rating and expanded programming, including a child-care fee relief programme. Vazirani also led development and programming at the Armed Services YMCA where he was in charge of implementing and measuring standardised programmes serving junior enlisted military families.
The White House informed that Vazirani was also selected to serve as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on the Well-Being of Military Families. It added that he served as a submarine officer in the US Navy between 1986 and 1993.
Vazirani, who immigrated to the US when he was three and is a son of a Vietnam-era Marine and the father of a currently serving Marine, has a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; a Master of engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
