On October 18, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. appointed Vinai Thummalapally to serve as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. In this capacity, Mr. Thummalapally assumes the role of USTDA’s Acting Director until a Director is confirmed by the Senate.
Prior to this appointment, Mr. Thummalapally served as the Executive Director of SelectUSA, a U.S. Department of Commerce initiative that facilitates job-creating business investment into the United States, from 2013 to 2017. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to Belize from 2009 to 2013, when he became the first Indian American ambassador in United States history.
Mr. Thummalapally has more than 30 years of experience in the private sector, including most recently as the Executive Chairman of Red Fort Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs and government relations firm, and as the President of MAM-A Inc., a U.S. manufacturer and distributor of archival recordable optical discs.
His civic leadership experience includes service as a board member of the Indian American Impact Project, a non-profit promoting Indian Americans to run for public office, and as an advisor to the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Victory Fund. He has also served as a board member for Cyient, a global digital engineering and technology company.
Mr. Thummalapally earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Northridge, CA.