Sonal Shah was born in Mumbai, India. She moved to the USA in 1972 at the age of 4, and grew up in Houston, Texas. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Economics in 1990 and received a master's degree in Economics from Duke University.
Career
Public service
Shah held a variety of U.S. Department of Treasury positions from 1995 until 2001. She was the director of the office overseeing strategy and programs for sub-Saharan Africa, which included debt relief, development programs and World Bank/International Monetary Fund strategies. She worked with the Ministries of Finance in Bosnia and Kosovo to design the post-war banking system. During the Asian financial crisis, she served as a senior adviser to U.S. Treasury officials who were coordinating the U.S. response.
Private sector
From 2001-2003, Shah served at the Center for Global Development as Director of Operations and Programs, helping set up all aspects of the strategy, infrastructure and operations. From 2003-2004, she worked at the Center for American Progress as an Associate Director, advising current and former Congressional and government executives on a wide variety of issues including trade, outsourcing and post-conflict reconstruction. In 2004, Shah joined Goldman Sachs as a Vice President, where she worked on green initiatives, which included informing clients and bankers on alternative energy opportunities and advising them on how to implement environmental, social and governance criteria for all investments. In 2007, Shah joined Google.org as the head of Global Development Initiatives, and worked closely with Executive Director Larry Brilliant in guiding global economic development efforts. She also worked extensively on the growth of small and medium sized enterprises in partnership with the Omidyar Network and the Soros Foundation. In July 2019, Shah joined the presidential campaign of South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg as
In 2001, Shah worked with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, a branch of the Hindu nationalist organization based in India, as the National Coordinator during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. The VHP in India has been classified by the Central Intelligence Agency as a militant religious organization as of 2018. Later in 2001, she co-founded the non-religious, non-profit Indicorps which recruits young people of Indian origin from all over the world to volunteer in India working for Indian NGOs. Indicorps volunteers have worked in the areas of education, health and sanitation, rural development, tsunami relief, and microfinance. She gave the key note address in 2004 talking about her work with Indicorps for the USA’s branch of the India-based Ekal Vidyala Foundation. The EVF in India has been accused of running schools that pursue a Hindu-nationalist agenda and generate hatred towards minorities. The EVF in 2005 lost public funding after the Indian federal government deemed it was “spreading hatred” against India’s non-Hindu minority. When she was appointed to the President Obama's transition team, leaders of the VHP and another Hindu nationalist organization, the RSS, issued a statement calling her a "proud member of the VHP, the daughter of Ramesh Shah, a very senior VHP leader." After her appointment to Obama's team and criticism of her links to India’s Hindu nationalist movement, Shah disassociated herself from the VHP and condemned its role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Board Memberships
Shah is a board member of OXFAM America and of Zev Shapiro's organization TurnUp
