Aadil Ginwala

Aadil Ginwala is Senior Policy Advisor to the CIO at the University of Pittsburgh.  His focus is the economic growth and social benefit potential possible from universal affordable high speed internet access, especially in the context of ensuring next-generation cutting-edge speeds and affordability for the city of Pittsburgh, the broader Western PA region, and the Commonwealth as a whole.

Prior to joining the University, Aadil served as chief of staff of the NTIA in the Department of Commerce as a political appointee of President Biden and Secretary Raimondo.  He was a leader of the agency when it was charged in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with distributing $46 billion to ensure affordable high-speed internet for every American and was instrumental in designing the rules for the BEAD program and in staffing up the teams at NTIA currently administering it.  Aadil also served as a Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Industry and Security at the Department, where he focused on information communication technology and national security matters.

Prior to joining NTIA, Aadil served in the Obama White House as the Assistant Director for Telecommunications and Education Innovation in the Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2015 until the end of the Administration. In the White House, Aadil worked on the launch of the $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, a public-private partnership focused on developing technologies for 5G and beyond that is now administered by the National Science Foundation as the Program for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR). He also helped organize interagency work to finalize a NEPA regulation to streamline deployment of broadband through federal lands, and a Program Comment for historical preservation by ACHP (the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation). In addition, Aadil worked closely with the National Economic Council and other White House agencies on tribal and rural broadband and attempts to close the digital divide and homework gap, including ConnectEd, ConnectHome, and Lifeline reform.

After leaving the Obama Administration and until joining Commerce, Aadil has been the founder and CEO of an artificial intelligence startup in the healthcare space in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he lives with his wife and two children. He is originally from Moorestown, NJ, and earned his bachelor’s degree and law degree from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. Aadil is also a proud alumnus of the Peace Corps, where he served in Benin, West Africa from 2001 to 2003, and a former law clerk to Justice Virginia A. Long of the New Jersey Supreme Court.