OPM director announces imminent departure

The director of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Kiran Ahuja, announced that she will leave her role in the coming weeks.

OPM serves as the federal government’s human resources office and recruits and retains more than 2.2 million federal employees.

“Serving in the Biden-Harris administration and in support of the 2.2 million federal workers who serve the American people has been the honor of my life,” Ahuja said in a statement Tuesday. “We have accomplished a lot these past three years at OPM, but I am most proud of the friendships and bonds we have built together in public service.”

Under Ahuja’s leadership, President Biden’s OPM implemented a $15 minimum wage for federal employees, issued a regulation prohibiting the use of prior non-federal salary history in setting salaries, issued a regulation prohibiting background requests for hiring and created the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility.

Ahuja, who was confirmed in June 2021, is the office’s longest-serving director in more than ten years and was confirmed as the first Asian-American woman to lead it.

Ahuja previously worked as a civil rights lawyer at the Department of Justice, was executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders under former President Obama, and was chief of staff for OPM under Obama.

She then served as CEO of Philanthropy Northwest and was a member of Biden’s presidential transition team before being nominated for the role. The office did not say who would replace Ahuja.