US President Joe Biden appointed Telegu origin former US diplomat Vinai Thummalapally as the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).
Sharing USTDA’s tweet about the appointment, Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao congratulated Thummalapally on getting appointed as the COO of the agency.
Previously, Thummalapally had served as US Ambassador to Belize between July 30, 2009, and August 12, 2013. With his engineering and manufacturing background and experience working in the US administration, he has brought a robust understanding of the US’s trade, policy, and regulatory landscape. He had worked as the Executive Director of SelectUSA, a US Department of Commerce initiative that facilitates job-creating business investment into the United States.
Thummalapally also worked as the CEO of MAM-A Inc (formerly known as Mitsui Advanced Media), a leading manufacturer and distributor of archival recordable optical discs. He holds two patents in optical disc manufacturing design. He currently serves on the Indian American Impact Project board, a non-profit promoting Indian Americans to run for public office. Thummalapally also chairs the Committees on Corporate Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Engagement and was a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Leadership, Nomination, and Remuneration Committee.
Born in 1954, Thummalapally moved to American in 1974. He then graduated from California with a BS degree in mechanical engineering and completed his post-graduate course in business administration from California State University (CSU). He also holds a diploma in Lean Production Systems from the University of Tennessee. He had also attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he spent a summer as Barack Obama’s roommate.
The first Indian American ambassador in US history, Vinai K. Thummalapally, is the son of T. Dharma Reddy, a retired scientist who worked for Andhra Pradesh Forensic Sciences Laboratory, and T. Padmaja.
