WASHINGTON (TIP): The White House announced Sep 7th, President Trump’s intent to nominate Indian American Manisha Singh of Florida as Assistant Secretary of State, Economic and Business Affairs. When confirmed by the US Senate, Singh will succeed Charles Rivkin, who had resigned following Trump’s swearing-in as the 45th President of the United States. Ms. Singh is Chief Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.   At the State Department, under President Bush, Singh served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs and as a senior aide to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

 Fluent in Hindi, Singh was born in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and moved to the US as a child. She earned an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Miami at the age of 19.  Singh is licensed to practice law in Florida, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, where she has worked at multinational law firms and worked in-house at an investment bank.  Ms. Singh also served as the first executive director of the Barer Institute for Law and Global Human Services at the University of Washington, School of Law, where she is crafted policy, albeit in an academic setting.

 In an interview to Washington Examiner, Ms. Singh credited her interest in public policy was piqued, on a high school visit to the Capitol, under a program called Congressional Classroom. After a successful stint in private practice, working as a legal advisor, Singh switched to translating practice into policy, while serving under Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

 On the nomination, Sanjay Puri, Chairman, US India Political Action Committee, said, “USINPAC has worked with Manisha in the past during and she has a proven track record in dealing with foreign policy, trade, intellectual property issues and the law. She will be a great asset to the Trump administration. We wish Singh all the success for the confirmation process.