Rajkumar Chellaraj
Raj Chellaraj is the CFO and Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and the Chief Operating Officer at the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED). He also serves as the Chairman of the Board at RhythmOne, a publicly-traded online advertising company that connects digital audiences with brands through premium content across devices. He is also the former Assistant Secretary of State for Administration at the United States Department of State.
Background
Early in his career, Chellaraj worked at Strategic Analysis Incorporated, a consulting firm based in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. He later worked at Exxon Corporation where he was Fuels Manager for industrial fuels in Singapore and marketed jet fuel in Asia and Australia. When Exxon Corporation re-entered India, he served as General Manager.
During the George H. W. Bush administration, Chellaraj joined the United States Environmental Protection Agency as Program Advisor and then served at the United States Agency for International Development as Counselor to the Assistant Administrator for Asia. In 2001, Chellaraj joined the United States Mint as Senior Executive Officer; at the US Mint, he served as the Chief Information Officer and was also responsible for supply chain, logistics and manufacturing operations at the West Point Mint, the Philadelphia Mint, the Denver Mint, and the San Francisco Mint. He returned to the private industry when Blackstone Group acquired Celanese Corporation and became Director of Corporate Planning in 2005.
President of the United States George W. Bush nominated Chellaraj as Assistant Secretary of State for Administration on January 24, 2006, succeeding William A. Eaton. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on May 26, 2006 and served in this position till January 20, 2009. After leaving the US Government, he worked as Vice President of Planning at Hostess Brands, a turnaround consumer food products company, responsible for Supply-Chain Finance, Forecasting and Planning.
He studied at the University of Madras, receiving a Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. He then immigrated to the United States and studied at Clarkson University, receiving a Master's degree in chemical engineering. He later attended New York University and London Business School, receiving an M.B.A. and then the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, receiving an M.P.A.
References
- https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/about/leadership.html
- https://seed.stanford.edu/about/seed-team
- http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/principalofficers/assistant-secretary-for-administration
- http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/results/leadership/bio_926.html