Former Treasury Department official and the Republican nominee for California governor in 2015, Neel Kashkari is named as the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on November 11, 2015. Best known nationally for running the $700-billion bank bailout initiative called TARP, or Troubled Asset Relief Program for a year until 2009, Kashkari lost last year to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Here are five facts about Neel Kashkari that you might find interesting.

1. Neel Kashkari’s net worth is estimated to be $5 million

Neel Kashkari’s salary per year from Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. was more than $100,000. His net worth is basically an accumulation of stocks that he earned while working for the first. He announced that his net worth was less than $5 million, which was not even enough to self-finance his campaign in 2014.

His new job will put him on a salary of $338,700 per year for five years.

2. Kashkari is a mechanical engineer

Born on July 30, 1973 in Ohio, Kashkari’s father Chaman Kashkari was an electrical engineer at the University of Akron. He attended Western Reserve Academy and despite his high school grades, he considered his grades not enough to apply to top-tier universities. He joined University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned his bachelor’s (1995) and master’s (1998) degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

3. Kashkari worked for NASA…someway

After graduating, Kashkari moved to Redondo Beach, California and worked as a mechanical engineer for TRW Inc, a contractor for NASA. He then worked on the James Webb Space Telescope.

He wasn’t much interested with his work and he left TRW to join Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to study MBA.

4. Kashkari is a practicing Hindu

It was in 2009 when Neel started praying while working on TARP, after one of his colleague had a heart attack at work. He is a practicing Hindu today.

5. Kashkari is married twice

Neel Kashkari met Minal, his ex-wife in college at the University of Illinois and the two married in a traditional Indian ceremony, only to divorce in 2011. He then married Christine One in Lake Tahoe in August, 2015 and currently lives in Laguna Beach, California. He does not have any children.

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