Arun M. Kumar (born 25 November 1952) is Managing Partner with Celesta Capital. Kumar also serves as Chair of the Wadhwani Institute of Technology and Policy, and he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Kumar is on the board of Indiaspora, an organization that links accomplished and influential people of Indian origin in many countries to be a force for good in enhancing the relationships between their country of residence and India. Kumar has had a long association with the US India Business Council and is an advisor to its board of directors.
Prior to his current role with Celesta Capital, Kumar served as the Chairman and CEO of KPMG in India for a five year term that ended on February 6. 2022 . He succeeded Richard Rekhy. Prior to leading KPMG in India, Kumar served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and director general of the US and Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS) in the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Career
KPMG in India
Under Arun M. Kumar’s leadership, KPMG in India overcame several challenges over a period of five years. Today in India, KPMG has the second largest workforce for KPMG anywhere across the world with over 32,000 employees. With Kumar at helm KPMG in India is said to have focused on specific areas of growth – ranging from special situations to do with stressed assets to cyber security. Kumar made sure that the Firm leverages on talent and skill availability in India to serve markets in proximate areas from Africa to East Asia. The many consequential steps taken by Kumar have ensured that KPMG India continues to build on its momentum along a well-thought-through strategic trajectory.
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets & Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial service Arun M. Kumar was nominated by President Obama on October 4, 2013, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 13, 2014. In his role as one of the top commercial diplomats of the United States, Kumar led the trade and investment promotion efforts for the U.S. Government responsible for a team of 1600 professionals located in over 100 U.S. cities and 78 world markets. He also served as the International Trade Administration's lead official advocating for better market access for U.S. exporters. During his tenure he visited over 30 countries, led dialogues with countries ranging from France to Indonesia and led trade missions to Colombia, Chile, Kenya, Mozambique, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam and represented the U.S. at economic forums in numerous countries including Canada, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. In 2016, the Global Markets unit that he led served 28,692 U.S. exporters, mostly small and medium enterprises, assisted U.S. companies win over a hundred deals with foreign governments valued at $50.9 billion that supported about 178,000 American jobs.
Kumar played a key role in strengthening commercial ties between India and the United States by helping establish, working with Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the US-India Strategic & Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) and a renewed US-India CEO Forum. The S&CD placed commerce and business at the center of the U.S.-India relationship spawning bilateral engagement across a spectrum of activities: ease of doing business, engagement in India's efforts to create a new bankruptcy code, encouraging new forms of financing including municipal bonds, co-operation in harmonizing standards, U.S. participation in smart cities development and in the launch of the U.S.-India Innovation Forum. He was member of President Obama's delegation on his historic visit to India as the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations in January 2015. He organized, with Stanford University, a roundtable for Prime Minister Modi on renewable energy during the Prime Minister's visit to Silicon Valley in September 2015.
Kumar oversaw the expansion and institutionalization of SelectUSA, the federal investment promotion initiative of the U.S. Government, that was housed in Global Markets. Successes included two SelectUSA Investment Summits and the U.S. participation in Hannover Messe as partner country in April 2016. Its 2015 and 2016 Investment Summits featured over 2,500 participants from more than 70 international markets.