Trustee
Nihal D. Chauhan leads the policy partnership for Google’s Government Affairs and Public Policy team in India, spearheading efforts to partner with and help the Indian government leverage technology to meaningfully impact its citizens’ lives.
Previously, Chauhan worked closely with the Chairman of the Tata Group, leading business development, policy, and strategy initiatives for India’s largest business conglomerate. He also served as Chief of Staff to Dr. S. Jaishankar, former Group President of Tata Sons and India’s current Minister of External Affairs, and helped establish Tata Group’s first Global Corporate Affairs team. Before this role, Chauhan was a consultant with The Cohen Group, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic advisory and business consulting firm. He started his career as an associate at the international marketing headquarters of Hitachi Ltd., based in Tokyo, Japan.
In April 2022, Chauhan was selected as one of 22 fellows across Asia by the inaugural International Strategy Forum (ISF) by Schmidt Futures. Founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the ISF forms a network of rising leaders with extraordinary potential in geopolitics, innovation, and public leadership. He was also awarded the prestigious David Rockefeller Fellowship by the Trilateral Commission in December 2019, in recognition of his contributions to commerce and international affairs, and he was named one of the 100 Leaders of Tomorrow by the St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland. Chauhan has also represented Indian industry in several bilateral dialogues to advance India’s commercial partnerships with countries including Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
Chauhan is a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he was named a Fletcher Board of Overseers Scholar and the Bosworth Fellow for academic merit and overall achievement in graduate studies. He completed his undergraduate studies at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. He speaks Hindi, English, Japanese, and Nepali.