Indian-American elected member of influential U.S. think tank

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A former Obama administration official credited with growing commercial relations with India, has been elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential think tank in the U.S.

KPMG International announced March 26, that Arun M. Kumar, chairman and CEO of KPMG in India, has been elected as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Kumar has served in senior leadership positions in both the private sector and in public service

He formerly served as a top U.S. commercial diplomat in the Obama Administration, in the role of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, where he led the trade and investment promotion efforts for Washington.

Prior to that Kumar was a partner and member of the Board of Directors at KPMG LLP serving a number of global clients as well as emerging Silicon Valley ventures, a press release from KPMG said.

“We take pride in Arun’s election as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has been an influential voice in international relations not just in the United States, but across the globe,” Bill Thomas, chairman, KPMG International is quoted saying in the press release.

“I am honored to join the Council of Foreign Relations. The work of the CFR is more relevant than ever before, especially in Asia and the part of the world where I now live,” Kumar said in a prepared statement in the press release, adding, “I look forward to working with other members of the CFR to foster leading ideas and conversations around vital and strategic foreign policy and business issues in the Indo Pacific corridor.”

Kumar joined KPMG in his current position of chairman and CEO in February 2017, for a five-year term. In his position in the Obama administration, he led a global organization of senior professionals present in 78 countries and all the 50 states in the U.S. He also worked to strengthen commercial ties between India and the United States and played a key role in establishing the India-US Strategic & Commercial Dialogue and a renewed India-US CEO Forum, KPMG said in a press release Feb. 5, 2017.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which was founded in 1921,  describes itself as “an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.”

Its members include some of the most respected global leaders and people from across the fields of government, business, education and journalism.