Obama appoints 4th Indian into his 15-member transition team

WASHINGTON: Indian-American management expert Anjan Mukherjee has been roped in by US President-elect Barack Obama into his transition team, the
fourth person from the community to be part of the 15-member high-profile group.

Mukherjee, a Managing Director of Corporate Private Equity group at Blackstone, has been appointed as one of the team leads in Economics and International Trade.

His appointment has been the latest one as three other Indian-Americans - Sonal Shah, Preeta Bansal and Nicholas Rathod - have already been inducted into Obama's team.

Mukherjee has been involved in the execution of a number of investments in a wide range of industries.

He has received a BA from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude as a Harry S. Truman Scholar and an MBA from Harvard Business school.

Before joining Blackstone, he worked with Thomas H. Lee Company and Morgan Stanley & Co.

He has also worked at the Department of Education (in the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) as well as the Brookings Institution.

Obama is the first African-American to win the US presidential elections. He will take over as the 44th president of the US on January 20, 2009.

The Indian-American community overwhelmingly supported Obama in the November 4 elections and are said to have voted for him by more than a two to one margin.

Source : ET