61 Facts About Neel Kashkari

1.

Neel Tushar Kashkari was born on July 30,1973 and is an American banker, economist and politician who is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

2.

Neel Kashkari was eventually named Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics and Development.

3.

Neel Kashkari left government and began working for Pimco in 2009, leading that company's push into the equities market.

4.

Neel Kashkari resigned from Pimco in January 2013 to explore a run for public office.

5.

Neel Kashkari came in second in California's nonpartisan blanket primary but lost the general election to incumbent governor Jerry Brown.

6.

Neel Kashkari was named the new president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve November 10,2015, succeeding Narayana Kocherlakota who announced his resignation in June.

7.

Neel Kashkari's parents are Kashmiri Hindus who were born and raised in Srinagar in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and immigrated to the United States in 1964.

8.

Neel Kashkari's parents were well known within the local community of Indian Hindus.

9.

Neel Kashkari's older sister, Meera Kashkari Kelley, is a physician specializing in infectious diseases.

10.

Neel Kashkari graduated in 1991 with honors in mathematics and was elected graduation speaker.

11.

Neel Kashkari was the team leader for the mechanical engineering component of the school's entry in the 1997 Sunrayce, a solar-powered vehicle race.

12.

Neel Kashkari left TRW to enter the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, earning an MBA in 2002.

13.

Neel Kashkari interned at the investment bank Goldman Sachs during the summer between his two academic years at Wharton.

14.

Neel Kashkari was a regional finalist for the White House Fellows program.

15.

Neel Kashkari contacted Paulson and asked to join him at Treasury.

16.

Neel Kashkari accepted, and then Paulson remembered to confirm that Neel Kashkari was a Republican.

17.

Neel Kashkari was one of several Goldman employees who followed Paulson to Treasury.

18.

Neel Kashkari began as a special assistant to Paulson working on energy policy.

19.

Neel Kashkari worked on issues related to India, particularly infrastructure development.

20.

In November 2007, Bush nominated Neel Kashkari to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Economics and Development.

21.

The US Senate confirmed the nomination in June 2008, and Neel Kashkari was sworn in the following month.

22.

Neel Kashkari played important roles in several episodes of the crisis.

23.

Neel Kashkari led Treasury's participation in the Hope Now Alliance, a mortgage industry initiative coordinated by the federal government that aimed to reduce foreclosures by modifying loan terms on a loan-by-loan basis.

24.

Neel Kashkari was in charge of Treasury's efforts to create a market in the US for covered bonds, whose value would continue to be guaranteed by the issuing bank after the bank had sold them.

25.

Neel Kashkari worked closely with Paulson on Treasury's takeover of the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on September 6,2008, and the federal bailout of American International Group on September 16.

26.

In March 2008, Neel Kashkari began to worry that, if the Bush administration never received the authority it needed to deal with the growing crisis, the next administration would blame them for everything wrong in the economy.

27.

Neel Kashkari was one of several Paulson aides who was heavily involved in the crafting the legislation.

28.

Neel Kashkari initially proposed a $1 trillion fund, but Paulson vetoed that number as too large.

29.

Neel Kashkari first came to widespread public attention on October 6,2008, when Paulson named him to this position.

30.

Neel Kashkari chaired the five-member investment committee within Treasury that decided which banks would receive TARP money.

31.

However, after Obama won the election, his transition team asked Neel Kashkari to remain at Treasury after the inauguration for a limited period.

32.

Neel Kashkari left the Treasury Department on May 1,2009, replaced at the helm of TARP by Herbert M Allison.

33.

Neel Kashkari won praise from Paulson and Timothy Geithner, Paulson's successor as Treasury Secretary and Neel Kashkari's boss under the Obama administration.

34.

Neel Kashkari worked on home improvement projects and helped Paulson write a memoir.

35.

In December 2009 Neel Kashkari was named a managing director at the investment firm Pimco, in charge of new investment initiatives.

36.

Neel Kashkari had met Bill Gross, Pimco's co-founder, in December 2007 as part of his work at Treasury.

37.

Neel Kashkari's move to Pimco attracted attention because Pimco benefited from the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though it did not receive TARP funds.

38.

The six equity mutual funds Pimco launched under Neel Kashkari all underperformed benchmarks in 2012.

39.

Neel Kashkari attributed this to the funds hedging risk, which decreases returns when stock prices increase.

40.

Neel Kashkari resigned from Pimco in January 2013, citing a desire to return to public service.

41.

Neel Kashkari was expected to announce a campaign for elected office.

42.

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal said that "the performance of [Pimco equity] funds Mr Neel Kashkari launched was spotty [and] the firm has since closed some of" them.

43.

Neel Kashkari has said he first considered running for Governor of California after Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election to Obama.

44.

Neel Kashkari spent the year after his resignation from Pimco preparing to campaign in the 2014 gubernatorial election, touring the state, hiring a staff, and meeting with potential donors.

45.

Neel Kashkari announced his candidacy on January 21,2014, citing jobs and education as his top priorities.

46.

Neel Kashkari was seen as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, while Donnelly identified with the right-wing Tea Party movement.

47.

Neel Kashkari raised $1 million within two weeks of announcing his candidacy and went on to raise a total of US$4.1 million, including $2 million of his own money.

48.

For most of the race, Neel Kashkari trailed Donnelly in public opinion polls.

49.

Neel Kashkari's campaign disputed some aspects of the reporting and said that Kashkari's Treasury Department service proves his commitment to civic life.

50.

Neel Kashkari opposes most of Obama's economic agenda and supports cutting business regulations.

51.

Neel Kashkari has called for cutting Social Security and Medicare and replacing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

52.

Neel Kashkari voted against California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in 2008.

53.

Neel Kashkari owns four guns and considers waiting periods and background checks before purchasing a firearm to be reasonable.

54.

Neel Kashkari has spoken positively of fracking and offshore oil drilling and negatively of California's cap-and-trade program.

55.

Neel Kashkari cites Paulson, Mitch Daniels, and Jeb Bush as political mentors.

56.

Neel Kashkari voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election and Romney in the 2012 election.

57.

In March 2014, Neel Kashkari proposed waiving state income taxes for 10 years for businesses that move to California with at least 100 jobs; waiving state income taxes for California companies that build new manufacturing plants in the state; expanding hydraulic fracturing of oil deposits; reducing environmental regulation; and increasing water storage in response to the state's ongoing drought.

58.

In early November 2015 Neel Kashkari was named president and CEO of the Minneapolis Fed.

59.

Neel Kashkari said in 2009 that he began praying while working on TARP, having been especially affected when a colleague had a heart attack at work.

60.

Neel Kashkari met his ex-wife Minal Jeshanker in college at the University of Illinois.

61.

Neel Kashkari married Christine Ong in California's Sugar Pine Point State Park in August 2015.