Neil Makhija
President
Neil Makhija serves as Montgomery County Commissioner and Chair of the Board of Elections. He is the first Asian American County Commissioner in Pennsylvania’s history across all 67 counties. Montgomery County is Philadelphia’s largest collar county of 865,000 people, more populous than 4 U.S. states and Washington D.C.
As Montgomery County Commissioner, Neil oversees the county’s 3,000 employees and billion-dollar budget that covers human services, infrastructure, civil & criminal justice systems, roads and bridges, election administration, parks & trails, and much more.
Since being elected in 2023, Neil has championed innovation in local government and implemented policies to protect voting rights, expand paid leave, combat climate change, invest in indigent defense and data-driven policing, and cut taxes for first-responders. In so many of these policies, Montgomery County has enacted historic policies that have led the way in Pennsylvania.
As Chair of the Board of Elections, Neil is focused on combating election disinformation, pioneering a national standard for voting rights, and ensuring safe and secure elections.
Prior to elected office, Neil taught election law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and served as the Executive Director of Indian American Impact, a national civic organization. Neil also worked as a consumer protection and workers’ rights attorney.
Neil earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School on the Horace Lentz Scholarship. He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.
Neil is the child of Indian immigrants and grew up in Carbon County, in a small coal and steel town in Northeast Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife Dr. Rachel Nash, an internal medicine physician, and his toddler son Avinash, in Narberth.
