Karan Bhatia

Karan Krishna Bhatia is an American attorney and former senior official in the Bush administration. He currently leads public policy and government relations for Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google). He served as the deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2005 to 2007, credited with leading the negotiation of the United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement. Additional appointments include Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs where he served from 2003 to 2005 and deputy under secretary of commerce for industry and security from 2001 to 2003. He served a total of six years in the Bush administration before returning to the private sector in 2008 to lead government affairs for General Electric.

Early life and education Bhatia's family is originally from Uttar Pradesh, but he was born in Washington D.C. His father is a retired official for the World Bank and of Indian descent, moving to the United States in the 1960s. He went on to earn his master's degree from the London School of Economics prior to attending Columbia Law School.

Career Bhatia clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Milton Pollack upon graduating from law school. During his time at the department, he was the key international policy advisor to Secretary Norman Mineta. including the air route agreement between the US Department of Transportation and the Civil Aviation Administration of China that allowed both the United States and China to increase the amount of air travel between the two countries.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates shares a laugh with retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, center, and Karan Bhatia, second from right, during the George C. Marshall Foundation Award presentation at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Oct. 16, 2009. In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Bhatia to the position of Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, a position that holds the rank of Ambassador. During his time in appointment, Bhatia oversaw the negotiation of the U.S. - Korea Free Trade Agreement, the first free trade agreement between the United States and a major Asian economy. He also led U.S. negotiations with Vietnam on the U.S. - Vietnam Bilateral WTO Accession Agreement which allowed American companies to have more access to the Vietnamese marketplace. He also signed the agreement on behalf of the United States.

General Electric It was announced that Bhatia would be leaving the U.S. Trade Representative's Office and returning to the private sector, becoming the Vice President and Senior Counsel of International Law & Policy for General Electric in 2008. At GE, Bhatia is credited with building a global government relations team that helped drive the company's global growth.

Google In 2018, Bhatia left GE to join Google as their new Global Head of Policy, tasked with overseeing the company's policy discussions on issues such as AI, job creation and infrastructure. During a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2019, Bhatia confirmed that the company's effort to launch a search engine in China codenamed Project Dragonfly had been abandoned, in response to questions from Republican Senator Josh Hawley regarding Google's business dealings with China.

Personal life Bhatia and his wife, Sara, have two sons.