Meet Neil
Neil Makhija serves as County Commissioner for Montgomery County, Philadelphia’s largest collar county of 865,000 people, more populous than 4 U.S. states and Washington D.C.
Bringing New Energy to Local Government
Neil Makhija serves as County Commissioner for Montgomery County, Philadelphia’s largest collar county of 865,000 people, more populous than 4 U.S. states and Washington D.C. In the role of Chairman, he serves as the chief executive overseeing a $1.2 billion budget and 3,000 county employees covering critical functions including infrastructure, public safety, human services, the justice system, and election administration.
Since being elected in 2023, Neil has championed innovation in local government to protect voting rights, support working families, combat climate change, improve public safety, and make a more efficient, responsive government.
In his first year in office, Neil and the Commission passed the most robust public paid leave policy in the state of Pennsylvania, made major investments in affordable childcare, expanded Montco’s small business loan program, and made historic strides in addressing the housing crisis.
As Chair of the Board of Elections, Neil ran the most accessible election operation in the state, with the highest number of votes cast in county history. His effort to expand voter access detailed in The New York Times included setting up mobile voting sites, creating voting materials in nine languages, and enacting mobile curing.
Neil’s record of standing up for Pennsylvanians extends to long before he ran for office. As an attorney, Neil represented Pennsylvania counties against the Big Pharma companies that flooded our communities with opioids and he led an early class action against Big Tobacco companies who marketed flavored e-cigarettes to children.
Neil earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School on the Horace Lentz Scholarship. He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. Prior to elected office, Neil taught election law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, worked as a consumer protection attorney, and served as the Executive Director of Indian American Impact, a national civic organization.
Neil is the child of immigrants and grew up in Carbon County, a small coal and steel town in Northeast Pennsylvania. He and his wife Dr. Rachel Nash, an internal medicine physician, are now raising their toddler son Avi, a fourth generation Montgomery County resident.
