Suresh Kumar (born February 1955) was appointed the Assistant Commerce Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director-General of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service by President Barack Obama on February 12, 2010.[1]
Suresh Kumar was born in Secunderabad, India. His father was an Army Officer and his mother a musician. He spent the early part childhood in Delhi, where he attended Delhi’s St. Columba's School. He obtained a bachelors degree in Economics from Delhi University, an MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, and is an alumnus of the Thunderbird International Consortium Program. Between 1970 and 1985 Kumar was news and sports anchor on national television in India.[2]
Currently, Kumar and his wife split their time between their residences in Princeton, NJ and Washington, DC. In addition to living in the United States, they have lived in India, Indonesia, Greece, Singapore and Canada and speak 6 languages. They have two adult children. Their daughter, Pooja Kumar, is an alumnus of Duke University and Harvard Medical School. She is a Rhodes Scholar and is currently working as a management consultant. Their son, Aditya Kumar, graduated from Georgetown University and holds a M.B.A. from Stanford University. Currently, he serves at the White House as the Deputy Assistant to the Vice President and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff.
Kumar has spent over thirty years as an international businessman, consultant, and professor of management educations. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Kumar led global businesses of major US corporations and been responsible for business units across all continents.
Most recently Kumar was President & Managing Partner of KaiZen Innovation, a management consulting firm, which he founded in 2004, that develops global commerce by establishing public-private collaborations that spur development, helping businesses extend their global footprint, and installing global marketing processes and programs. At KaiZen, Kumar consulted on projects for leading institutions and corporations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Development Bank and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). During his time as the Special Advisor to the Clinton Foundation, Kumar worked with Governments in Sub Saharan Africa and corporate CEOs to establish collaborative business models and execute farmer and market friendly programs to promote food security and stimulate economic development in the region.
Kumar is published on issues related to global management and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University and Bombay University in India and was appointed Professor of International Business at Rutgers University EMBA program.
Kumar has also served on the Board and councils of several organizations, including World Self-Medication Industry (WSMI), the American Management Association (AMA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2004, Kumar was named Distinguished Executive-in-Residence by Thunderbird School of Global Management for his contributions to global trade.