Maju Varghese Formally Named Director of White House Military Office
Indian American lawyer Maju Varghese. (LinkedIn photo)
India-West Staff Reporter
Maju Varghese, who previously served as a key member of the Joe Biden for President campaign and the inaugural committee, was March 9 formally appointed as director of the White House Military Office.
As the WHMO director, Varghese will oversee all military operations aboard Air Force One on presidential missions worldwide.
Air Force One is used to designate any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the American president.
Varghese, who is in his early forties, was one of the four members of the presidential inaugural committee, which organized the activities surrounding the Jan. 20 swearing-in of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden appointed Varghese to the post March 1.
This will be his second stint at the White House.
The Indian American lawyer was former President Barack Obama’s special assistant and the deputy director of advance, a position in which he worked on organizing his travel in the U.S. and abroad.
One of those assignments was organizing Obama’s 2015 historic trip to India for the Republic Day celebrations.
Varghese later became assistant to the president for administration and management overseeing the White House complex in the Obama administration.
As the COO of the Biden-Harris campaign, he ran the logistics for the nationwide, multi-million-dollar effort, mobilizing tens of thousands of staff and volunteers.
Varghese successfully steered the inauguration through two difficult problems: the coronavirus pandemic and the threat of attacks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
The ceremony and events like the star-studded “Celebrate America” concert that featured singers Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Justin Timberlake, and hosted by actor Tom Hanks, had to be arranged around the two dangers.
Varghese’s parents immigrated from Thiruvalla, Kerala, to the U.S., where he was born, and he is a lawyer by training.
He is one of more than 20 Indian Americans appointed to senior positions in the Biden administration.
