Indo-American Iyengar Plumb confirmed as Deputy under Defence Secretary

The US Senate has confirmed Radha Iyengar Plumb, a national security expert, as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment, the latest Indian-American to be named by the Biden administration for a key position.

President Joe Biden had nominated Plumb, currently serving as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defence, to this prestigious position in June 2022.

By a vote of 68-30, the Senate confirmed Radha Iyengar Plumb to be the Deputy Under Secretary of Defence, US Senate Periodical Press Gallery tweeted on Tuesday.

Prior to her appointment as the Chief of Staff, she was the Director of Research and Insights for Trust and Safety at Google and had previously served as the Global Head of Policy Analysis at Facebook.

Plumb previously was a Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation where she focused on improving the measurement and evaluation of readiness and security efforts across the Department of Defence.

She also held a number of senior staff positions on national security issues at the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the White House National Security Council.

At the outset of her career, she was an Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics and did her postdoctoral work at Harvard.

Plumb received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Economics from Princeton University, and she holds a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to her profile released by the White House in June last year.

In her Linkedin profile, Plumb describes herself as an experienced leader with deep technical analytic skills and a demonstrated history of working in the government, academia, and industry.