Rathod, Nick

Nick Rathod is the Executive Director of the newly formed State Innovation Exchange (SiX). Prior to joining SiX, Nick served as the Director of State Campaigns for Mayor Bloomberg’s, Everytown for Gun Safety, where he directed state legislative campaigns. Nick also served as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Assistant Director for Intergovernmental and International Affairs where he helped in building the structure of the CFPB and setting up the intergovernmental affairs and international operations for the agency. Before this role, Nick served as a Special Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. He also served as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama-Biden Transition Team. Nick has also served as a Senior Advisor to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Senior Manager of State and Regional Affairs at the Center for American Progress.

Rathod served as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Rathod has also worked as the Deputy Director of the Federal Affairs Office for Governor David Paterson (NY) and Senior Manager of State and Regional Affairs for the Center for American Progress. In addition, Rathod was a community organizer – organizing DC’s immigrant communities around language access issues and a civil rights attorney –representing minority communities who were discriminated against in lending, including a one billion dollar settlement on behalf of African American farmers. Rathod is also active in the South Asian community co-founding the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) as well as South Asians for Obama (SAFO). He is the recipient of the Frederick B. Abramson award recognizing Washington DC’s top public interest attorneys and is the 2005 National South Asian Bar Association's national public interest attorney of the year.

<p> Nick Rathod is a Managing Director at Red Fort Strategies. Mr. Rathod was the previously the founder and Executive Director of the State Innovation Exchange (SiX). In 2014, Nick successfully merged several organizations together to form SiX, including Progressive States Network, Center on State Innovation, and the American Legislative Issues and Campaign Exchange (ALICE). Prior to SiX, Nick served as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama-Biden Transition Team. In these roles, Nick served as President Obama’s liaison to states and U.S. territories. Nick also worked with Senator Elizabeth Warren to help with the building and establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), serving as the Bureau’s Assistant Director, in charge of Intergovernmental and International Affairs. </p>

<p> Nick has also served as a Senior Advisor to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senior Manager of State and Regional Affairs at the Center for American Progress, and Director of State Campaigns for Mayor Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. A lawyer by training, Nick has also worked as a civil rights attorney and community organizer, with a focus on language access, housing discrimination, and immigrant rights issues. He is a founding member and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering the South Asian community. </p>

<p> Nicholas Rathod is the founder and former executive director of the State Innovation Exchange, which was created and designed to build progressive power in state legislatures around the country, growing it from an idea to a multimillion dollar organization with more than 30 staff in 3 years. Prior to leading this organization, Rathod served as the director of state campaigns for Mayor Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, where he oversaw legislative campaigns around gun control. Rathod also worked with Senator Elizabeth Warren to help build and establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and later served as the Bureau’s Assistant Director, in charge of Intergovernmental and International Affairs. </p>

<p> Rathod was U.S. President Barack Obama's Special Assistant and Deputy Director for Intergovernmental Affairs in the Office of the President, serving as President Obama’s liaison to states and U.S. territories handling political and policy engagement as it relates to the states for the President. </p>

<p> Immediately prior to his White House appointment, Rathod served as Director for Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama/Biden Transition team. As such, he represented, and spoke on behalf of the President-elect, at the inauguration of Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuño, who although a Republican, heads a bipartisan administration that includes two notable Democrats, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi and Kenneth McClintock, who was appointed by Fortuño as Secretary of State, and first in the line of succession. </p>

<p> A Virginia-based community organizer, he has been active in co-founding two organizations, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and, during the 2008 presidential campaign, South Asians for Obama (SAFO). He has also served as the Political Director for former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and as Senior Manager of State and Regional Relations at the Center for American Progress, founded by President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, John Podesta. </p>

<p> Most recently, Rathod has been active in Virginia helping to build and grow the state's first donor table, assisting in organizing and other support for low income Virginians through his work on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Poverty Law Center and is an advisor to a number of statewide and local elected officials across the Commonwealth. </p>