U.S. President Joe Biden will be nominating Indian American Ravi Chaudhary to a key position in the Pentagon. Biden has announced that former Air Force officer Chaudhary has been nominated for the position of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy and the Environment.
Chaudhary however needs to be confirmed by the United States Senate before he can be sworn in for this key Pentagon position.
According to his bio released by the White House, Chaudhary previously served as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he was Director of Advanced Programs and Innovation, Office of Commercial Space, at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He was responsible for the execution of advanced development and research programs in support of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation mission.
While at the Department of Transportation, Chaudhary also served as the executive director, Regions and Centre Operations. In this role, he was responsible for the integration and support of aviation operations in nine regions located nationwide.
While on active duty from 1993 to 2015 in the U.S. Air Force, he completed a variety of operational, engineering, and senior staff assignments in the Air Force, the White House said.
Earlier in his career, he had also supported space launch operations for the Global Positioning System (GPS) and led third stage and flight safety activities to ensure the full operational capability of the first GPS constellation, the White House said.
As a systems engineer, he supported NASA’s International Space Station protection activities to ensure the safety of NASA Astronauts.
He also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama Administration.
Chaudhary holds a Doctorate specializing in Executive Leadership and Innovation from the Georgetown University DLS Program, an MS in Industrial Engineering from St. Mary’s University as a NASA graduate fellow, an MA in Operational Arts and Military Science from Air University, and a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
