Maju Varghese ’05 is the first person of Indian origin to hold a position as the Director of the White House Military Office, a position he obtained in March 2021 after holding several previous positions in the White House.
Varghese has always been drawn to politics and the law. “My parents always wanted me to be a doctor,” Varghese says, “but if you saw my math and science grades , you’d know why that wasn’t a good idea. I planned to go to law school instead.” But in his final year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Varghese “began to think perhaps working for a while before going to law school would be a better plan.”
An Introduction to Politics and the Law
In the Spring of ’99, a friend who had interned at the White House during the Clinton administration was doing advance trips for Gore’s campaign events, and he convinced Varghese to join an event for the New Hampshire primary. Eventually, Varghese was hired for the Gore campaign and then by the Democratic National Committee. During that time, he developed a close network of friends and colleagues, including his future wife, Julie.
In 2000, he decided it was time for law school, and he was accepted at Hofstra Law. “At that point, I thought I’d be a lawyer working in New York after law school,” he says. But while in law school, politics came calling again.
“When you do campaign advance work, it’s a small world – it’s almost like being in a club,” he says. “Every campaign cycle, those who are still working will call friends who they know who have done it before and ask if they want to do a trip.” Varghese received the call and did some campaign trips along with other law-related work while in law school.
After law school, Varghese went to work for a New York law firm, Wade, Clark, Mulcahy, but he still managed to take some time off to participate in political campaign advance activities for then-Senator Obama. “The firm was really good to me. They allowed me to take time off . I think they liked that I was doing something different and contributing.”
Working in the White House
In 2010, a position opened in the White House as a special assistant and Advance Lead to President Obama. Although it meant a pay cut and would require many hours on the road, Varghese accepted the position. “At the time, I was only a few years away from the crossroads of making partner at the firm, and I wasn’t sure that was the kind of work I wanted to do,” he says. I talked to my wife about it and she said, “I don’t want to share you with many people, but I can share you with the President of the United States for a while.”
Varghese moved up to Deputy Director of Advance, which allowed him to coordinate all of the White House foreign and domestic trips from D.C., with more predictability and less travel. “I was like the quarterback of the team, coordinating and doing long-term planning. It was long hours, but at least I was here, and I loved my job” he says. In the spring of 2015, he became the White House Director of Management and Administration, “kind of like a COO,” he says, “handling personnel, budget, facilities and operations for the White House.”
After the transition at the end of President Obama’s administration, Varghese left the White House. “I didn’t believe I would ever be back,” he says. He took his operations experience to Denton’s working with their chief security officer developing security programs and processes for the firm, and then worked as COO for a non-profit in Washington D.C.
“I remember we were looking at Lafayette Park and my mother told a story about coming to Washington, D.C. when I was a baby. They couldn’t get closer to the White House than across the street. She talked about changing my diaper on a bench outside, and how incredible it was to now be on other side of the fence with me looking out at the park. My parents would never have dreamed of that.”
A Return to the White House
But in the summer of 2019, politics came calling yet again, when he was contacted about working on Biden’s campaign as COO. In discussing it with his family, Varghese says, “We believed it was the most important campaign of our lifetime.’ After the campaign was over, Varghese became executive director of the inaugural committee. “It was a challenging time, with Covid, the campaign and the two-month sprint to the inauguration,” he says.
Varghese wasn’t sure what was next for him, but he was offered the position of Director of the White House Military Office . He had previous experience working with the military office through his advance work, and ultimately, the strong bonds and lifelong friendships he had developed during his work at the White House led him to accept the position, where he currently coordinates military support for White House travel and other functions.
Making His Family Proud
“One of the proudest moments of my career was giving my family a tour of the White House,” he says. “I remember we were looking at Lafayette Park and my mother told a story about coming to Washington, D.C. when I was a baby. They couldn’t get closer to the White House than across the street. She talked about changing my diaper on a bench outside, and how incredible it was to now be on other side of the fence with me looking out at the park. My parents would never have dreamed of that.”
Varghese’s parents came from Kerala in southern India, where his mother was a nurse, which is what allowed them to come to the United States. His father worked as a cab driver and a hospital security guard. “I will leave this world with degrees and accomplishments, and having traveled the world, but I will never do what they did, sacrificing to come to this country without much support and having to figure everything out on their own.” Varghese says of his parents.
The post Maju Varghese ’05, Director of the White House Military Office, On Being Continually Called to Politics appeared first on Hofstra Law News.