US President Swearing In: Meet Vinay Reddy, The Indian-American Who Will Be Director Of Speechwriting For Biden

Meet the man who will be responsible for all of Joe Biden's speeches as president - Vinay Reddy.

Image Source: buildbackbetter.gov

New Delhi: Joe Biden has selected about 20 Indian-origin Americans for his administration, 17 of whom are going to have key roles in the White House and 13 are women. Vinay Reddy will be the Director of Speechwriting and top confidant, he served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Biden in the second term of the Obama-Biden White House.

According to PTI, Biden will be delivering a forward-looking speech built around the theme of unity, advisors close to the President-elect said. Biden will speak about the need to bring the country together during an unprecedented moment of crisis moments after he is sworn in as the 46^th president of United States of America. The speech is likely to last between 20 and 30 minutes. The theme of the speech is America United.

Raised in Dayton, Ohio, Reddy was the chief speech writer to Biden during his second term as the vice president of the US from 2013 to 2017. He is the first ever Indian American to be appointed as a presidential speech writer.

After serving chief speechwriter to Vice President Biden, Reddy worked as Vice President of Strategic Communications at the National Basketball Association. During the Obama-Biden Administration, he also served as senior speechwriter at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, deputy speechwriter for the Obama-Biden reelection campaign, and speechwriter for his home state Senator, Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

According to The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with his plans said Biden has been drafting the speech since the start of his presidential transition in November. Aides have said his speech will be in keeping with the major themes of his campaign, including unity, bipartisanship and optimism, the daily noted.

"He wants to use the moment to call Americans to unity," incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.

Aside from Reddy, Gautam Raghavan will serve as Deputy Director in Office of Presidential Personnel he has earlier worked at the White House during Barack Obama’s presidentship. Two officials with Kashmiri roots have also been named to assist Biden in administration — Aisha Shah as Partnership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy and Sameera Fazili as Deputy Director at the US National Economic Council in the White House. Bharat Ramamurti will also be part of the White House National Economic Council as its Deputy Director.

The President-elect named former foreign service official Uzra Zeya as Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights. Mala Adiga will be Policy Director to soon-to-be First Lady Dr Jill Biden while Garima Verma has got the appointment as Digital Director of the Office of the First Lady. Sabrina Singh will work as the White House Deputy Press Secretary. Neera Tanden, who has been nominated as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and Dr Vivek Murthy as the US Surgeon General. Vanita Gupta has been chosen as Associate Attorney General Department of Justice.  Biden's administration is considered to be 'most diverse in history' accoridng to CNBC.