Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi new Election Commissioner

Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi, who retired only a week ago as Civil Aviation Secretary, was on Tuesday appointed as an Election Commissioner.

President Pranab Mukherjee [ Images ] made the appointment filling a vacancy caused by the elevation of V S Sampath as Chief Election Commissioner after S Y Quraishi demitted office.

H S Brahma is the other Election Commissioner.

Zaidi will be in office till the year 2017.

Zaidi, a 1976 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] cadre, retired as Civil Aviation Secretary on July 31.

Prior to that, he had served as director general of civil aviation and as the permanent representative of India [ Images ] to the council of international civil aviation organization from 2005-08. He also served earlier as chairman in airport authority of India.

A Masters in Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Zaidi has been a Mason Fellow for Public Policy at Harvard Institute for

International Development. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Finance from Indian Institute of Finance and holds doctorate in Bio-Chemistry.