Chirag Parikh, former director of space policy at the National Security Council, has been named executive secretary of the White House National Space Council chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, SpaceNews reported Monday.
Parikh will join the council from Microsoft, where he has served as senior director of Azure Space since January 2020.
He previously worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, where he served as deputy director for counterproliferation.
He also served as deputy national intelligence officer for science and technology within the National Intelligence Council and spent a decade as an aerospace engineer within the U.S. Air Force’s national air and space intelligence center.
Parikh’s appointment came three months after Harris was named head of the National Space Council.
The White House said the council is expected to have its first meeting in the fall of 2021.
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