Who Is Neera Tanden, First Indian-American to head White House Budget office?

US President-elect Joe Biden announced key members of his “crisis tested” economic team on Monday including Indian-American Neera Tanden as his pick for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

She will be the first Indian-American and the first woman of colour to serve as director of the US Office of Management and Budget.

Tanden is a Yale Law alumna who currently serves as chief executive of the think tank Center for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organisation based in Washington.

She is the daughter of Indian immigrant parents and often makes the list of the most powerful people in the US capital, from Elle’s 10 most powerful women in DC in 2014, to Politico’s 50 (sharing the 18th rank with two other aides of the then US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton) in 2016.

She was a close ally of Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, and helped pass the Affordable Care Act under Barack Obama.

Tanden is currently the chief executive of the Centre for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organisation. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two children.