WASHINGTON (WCMH) -- A biotech entrepreneur with origins in Ohio -- who at one point competed with Donald Trump for the White House -- is now taking a seat at his cabinet's table. On Tuesday, Trump appointed Vivek Ramaswamy to co-head a new "Department of Government Efficiency" with fellow billionaire Elon Musk. Named as a nod to the cryptocurrency DOGE, the organization won't actually be a government agency and will instead review its branches from the outside. Musk and Ramaswamy's group will "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies." Since he and Twitter-turned-X's owner won't actually be federal employees, they'll also be exempt from requirements to disclose their assets to avoid conflicts of interest. Forbes previously ranked Ramaswamy, 39, as "the second-wealthiest person competing in the Republican presidential primary," estimating his net worth around $1 billion. He also currently resides in Upper Arlington, according to Sell For 1 Percent Realtors, who in June shared a tour of his $2 million-dollar mansion on Squirrel Bend. On his Facebook page in July, Ramaswamy also posed for a photo with the local fire department. Ramaswamy, born in Cincinnati, entered the race to become the party's nominee against current President Joe Biden in February 2023. He boasts founding of a biotechnology company, operating as a hedge fund partner and authoring books like "Woke, Inc." and "Nation of Victims" in his portfolio. The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy ran a campaign critical of left-wing ideology and diversity, with promises to eliminate affirmative action if he won. In some ways, he emulated Trump's identity as a political outsider, and a previous call to fire 75% of the federal workforce foreshadows his tenure with DOGE. "I stand on the side of revolution," Ramaswamy said in November 2023. "That's what I'm going to lead in a way that no establishment politician can." Ramaswamy never directly argued his case for the presidency against Trump, because the latter did not participate in a single debate between the pool of Republican candidates. But it didn't matter to voters, who continued ranking the former president above every other competitor in polls. By January 2024, Ramaswamy had suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. The president-elect has likened Ramaswamy and Musk's new roles to the "Manhattan Project of our time," the World War II program that developed the first nuclear weapons. He gave a deadline of July 4, 2026, for the pair to complete their work in DOGE.