Arun M. Kumar is a business leader, diplomat, and author with extensive global experience in many fields: consulting and professional services, high technology, entrepreneurship, venture capital, non-profit service organizations, and public service.
He is a Managing Partner at Celesta Capital, a leading Silicon Valley based deep technology venture capital firm, spending his time between Silicon Valley, Bangalore, and Washington, DC.

Kumar is an elected life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York. He serves on the Advisory Council to the Quad Investors Network, supporting the US National Security Council in their efforts to foster technology collaboration between the Quad countries. He serves on the boards of the US- India Business Council and of Indiaspora and is a Trustee of the Foundation for Excellence India Trust.

He has authored a book on international business, The Global Trade Paradigm, published by HarperCollins in 2023. He highlights the evolution and imperatives of global value chains — and attendant geopolitics – and discusses their effects on the risk profile for corporations and countries.

Kumar has, since 2022, served on the Board of Directors of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, an NYSE listed global pharmaceutical company, where he also chairs the Audit Committee.
He was formerly Chairman and CEO of KPMG India for five years when he led the organization through an extraordinary period of growth and transformation, doubling its strength to 26,000 market-facing professionals. He was a member of KPMG’s global board of directors where he chaired the Global Risk Management Committee. He was a director on KPMG’s Europe Middle East & Africa board and served on the KPMG South Africa Oversight Committee.

Kumar served in President Obama’s Administration as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS). As a senior US diplomat, he traveled to over thirty countries to advance US commercial engagement and lead trade missions. He led a team of 1,700 professionals located in 78 countries and all the 50 states of the US focused on increasing US exports and inward FDI. He played a key role in establishing and institutionalizing SelectUSA, the investment promotion unit of the U.S. government.

Prior to his tenure in Washington, DC, Kumar was a partner at KPMG LLP in the U.S. Based in Silicon Valley, he led KPMG’s Management Consulting practice in the West and served on the Board of KPMG U.S., serving on many committees and chairing the Audit, Finance and Operations Committee.
After obtaining his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, Kumar was an entrepreneur, and CEO/ CFO of three companies he co-founded in Silicon Valley. He started his career in India, as a member of the Tata Administrative Service (now known as TAS), the central management cadre of the Tata Group where he worked directly for Mr Ratan Tata for five years.
Kumar was appointed by the Indian securities regulator (SEBI) as a member of the Committee on Corporate Governance, in 2017, to improve the quality of governance in listed corporations. While he was at KPMG India, he conceptualized and initiated the creation of the independent Foundation for Audit Quality, a pioneering institution dedicated to improving governance.

He is the author of two books of poetry, Mantram Beach, (Aleph Book Company, 2020) and Plain Truths (Current Books, 2010).
Many of Kumar’s writings and talks can be accessed at www.arunmkumar.com.