Joe Biden appoints Indian-American Sumona Guha as senior Director for South Asia

The Biden-Harris transition team announced the appointment of Indian American Sumona Guha to the role of Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council.

Ms Guha co-chaired the South Asia foreign policy working group on the Biden-Harris campaign, and was a member of the transition team. She will succeed the Trump administration’s Lisa Curtis in the role.

Ms Guha, a former Foreign Service officer, has been a Senior Vice President since mid-2018 at the Albright Stonebridge Group, whose chair is former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

She has also worked at the U.S. India Business Council and, prior to that, in the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff with responsibility for South Asia.

She was also a Deputy Director for Afghanistan Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and has been a special advisor for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President (during Mr. Biden’s tenure).

The transition team also announced other NSC appointments and roles, as part of Mr Biden’s restructuring of the Council, which will be headed by Jake Sullivan, who had said that Mr Biden had asked him to “reimagine” national security.

The new positions include Coordinator for Democracy and Human Rights (Shanthi Kalathil), Senior Director for Technology and National Security (Tarun Chhabra), Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense (Elizabeth Cameron).