Indian-American lobbying firm Red Fort Strategies launches in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Longtime Democratic political activists and influential business leaders are joining with a former U.S. ambassador of Indian origin to launch a wholly Indian-American lobbying firm.

Red Fort Strategies, based in the nation’s capital, will be helmed by former U.S. Ambassador to Belize, Vinai Thummalapally. Thummalapally, became the first Indian-American U.S. ambassador following his appointment by President Barack Obama, who had been his college roommate. Thummalapally had also been a supporter of Obama’s 2008 presidential run, raising more than $200,000 for the campaign.

The firm joins the field already populated by lobbying giants Akin Gump, Squire Patton Boggs and The Podesta Group, which at various times have also represented India for nearly $1 million a year. It will also include former senior Obama administration official Nicholas “Nick” Rathod, Democratic Party activist and the founder of the Indian American Leadership Initiative Varun Nikore, strategic consultant Rina Shah and Ferhan Hamid, who has held leadership roles for more than 23 years in both the public and private sectors.

Thummalapally, the executive chairman and co-founder of Red Fort Strategies, said the firm’s “deep bipartisan political background exemplifies both Washington D.C. and the United States. We are looking forward to helping international and multinational companies gain a strong foothold in our nation's capital.”

Thummalapally said that all of the principals have decades of corporate business and bipartisan government experience needed to connect and guide companies to Washington D.C. He said Red Fort Strategies would offer public affairs, government relations, economic development, digital strategy and multi-national corporate advisory services.  

Co-Founder Nikore, who founded the Indian American Leadership Initiative (IALI) more than two decades ago to support and fund Indian-American candidates, told India Abroad that Red Fort fills a void in Washington.

“We have assembled an amazing team of high-performers who have a wide breadth of subject matter experience. We not only understand how Washington D.C. works and craft effective solutions but we are cognizant of how D.C. is evolving in its thinking,” he said. The company is focusing on Fortune 1000 companies as well as emerging ones focusing on artificial intelligence, block chain and cyber security, unmanned aerial vehicles and other fast-growing arenas, he said.

The firm takes its name from the historic fortress in Delhi. “It is certainly in our heritage,” he said “but also more importantly that ours is a East-West firm that intends on taking advantage of an enormous amount of cross-border trade, especially between the U.S. and India, but of course, we will also zero in on other regions like the Middle East and East Asia.”

Thummalapally, who immigrated from Andhra Pradesh in 1974, is a mechanical engineer by training with three decades’ experience in the private sector. After his ambassadorial stint from 2009 to 2013 he held a senior position in the Obama administration as executive director of SelectUSA, a government-wide foreign direct investment program led by the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Rathod has nearly two decades of experience in political, governmental, and non-profit sectors, and till recently, served as founder and executive director of the State Innovation Exchange (SiX), designed to provide public policy support to state lawmakers across the country. He had also been first assistant director of intergovernmental and international affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the Obama administration he was 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.

Shah, a strategic consultant, media commentator, and millennial entrepreneur based in Washington D.C. for more than a decade, has also been a political activist. Prior to launching Rilax Strategies, she was a senior aide to two Republican members of the House of Representatives and was a strategist on the Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns.

Nikore's background encompasses nearly three decades of experience in government, policy, and international trade. He served as senior vice -president-International for TriPolus, a London-based facilitator of international business and emerging markets.

He also served as a strategic adviser to domestic and foreign companies in global business development, marketing, and international offsets focused on assisting aerospace and defense suppliers in engaging in the U.S. marketplace and establishing themselves in the U.S. supply chain, before joining the AAPI Victory Fund.

Hamid most recently served as CEO and co-founder of INADEV, a cutting edge digital technology firm. He was also a partner in a national law firm focusing on government affairs and public finance, and also served as a director at investment banking firm FBR Capital Markets, Inc. in Washington, D.C. Hamid previously spent 13 years in public service, which included being managing deputy controller for the city of Chicago.