Tarak Shah is the former Chief of Staff for the Department of Energy (DOE), and was the first person of color, first Indian-American, and first openly LGBTQ person to serve in the position.

Tarak has spent the last decade of his life working on his lifelong passion of combating climate change. From organizing coalitions to working at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Tarak has designed and implemented policies that have contributed to the clean energy revolution, fostered profound advancements in renewables and energy efficiency, and formed core portions of U.S. global climate commitments.

Tarak was most recently the personnel lead for the climate and science team at the Biden-Harris Transition. From 2014-2017, he served as Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Science and Energy at DOE. Earlier in his career, Tarak served at the Pentagon spearheading efforts to optimize the U.S. military's energy use and at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Prior to his time in government, Tarak worked for then-Senator Barack Obama in a variety of roles on his 2004 and 2008 campaigns, for his political action committee and with his transition team. Tarak holds an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson School of Graduate Management and Bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Urban Planning from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.