WASHINGTON—To revive the U.S. chip industry, the Biden administration has launched one of the most significant acts of government intervention since World War II—and it is relying on masters of the free market to deliver the goods. The team includes Sara O’Rourke, a former partner at McKinsey & Co., Farha Faisal, who previously worked at private-equity company Blackstone, and former Goldman Sachs bankers Kevin Quinn and Srujan Linga. Mary Alex Smith is an investment principal and a former JPMorgan banker. That task falls heavily on Linga, who leads the team’s financial structuring group. As a top banker specializing in asset-backed financing at Goldman, he helped airlines borrow by using frequent-flier programs as collateral and Sprint issue debt backed by wireless spectrum licenses. An Indian immigrant who traded a $5 million annual paycheck for a $183,500-a-year government job, Linga said he realized the national security implications at stake when he bumped into an army general at Raimondo’s office during his job interview. “When the U.S. government offers you a role like this, it’s an honor,” he said.
The team includes Sara O’Rourke, a former partner at McKinsey & Co., Farha Faisal, who previously worked at private-equity company Blackstone, and former Goldman Sachs bankers Kevin Quinn and Srujan Linga. Mary Alex Smith is an investment principal and a former JPMorgan banker.
That task falls heavily on Linga, who leads the team’s financial structuring group. As a top banker specializing in asset-backed financing at Goldman, he helped airlines borrow by using frequent-flier programs as collateral and Sprint issue debt backed by wireless spectrum licenses.
An Indian immigrant who traded a $5 million annual paycheck for a $183,500-a-year government job, Linga said he realized the national security implications at stake when he bumped into an army general at Raimondo’s office during his job interview. “When the U.S. government offers you a role like this, it’s an honor,” he said.