Mr. Fuller joined Marriott in 1972 as a management trainee and has held numerous positions of increasing marketing, sales and operational responsibility. These include director of national and international sales and reservations; chief sales and marketing officer for Marriott International and opening general manager of the Long Island (NY) Marriott and the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotels. In 1985, he was named regional vice president for Marriott’s Midwest Region, based in Chicago; four years later, he was appointed regional vice president for the Western/Pacific Region, based in Santa Ana, CA. He assumed leadership of Marriott’s international lodging operations in 1991 as senior vice president and managing director and later was promoted to executive vice president and managing director. He was promoted to president and managing director, his current position, in 1997. He has been an executive corporate officer since 1997 and chairs the international development committee.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Fuller was credited with establishing Marriott International’s original international reservations network and for its sales and marketing organization in Europe and the Middle East. He served as a board member and chairman of SNR International, a reservations consortium based in Zurich.

Mr. Fuller attended Wake Forest University and is a 1968 graduate of Boston University. He is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business advanced management program. He served in the U.S. Army as a captain in Germany and Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal.

An active alumnus of Boston University, Mr. Fuller is a former president of its Alumni Association and a former trustee of the University. He currently serves on the advisory boards of its hotel and business schools where he is Chairman of the Hospitality Board. He also serves on the University’s International Advisory Board. In 1998, he received the Alumni Award, the University’s highest recognition. He recently was appointed to the Board of Overseers of Boston University. He also serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for the University of California Irvine, Mirage School of Business and was recently appointed to the California State University Hospitality Industry Advisory Board. He is a Trustee of the International Business Leaders Forum; chairs the Governing Council of the International Tourism Partnership; and currently serves on the Safe Kids Worldwide Board and the Pacific Area Travel Association Foundation Board, as well as the Editorial Advisory Boards of TravelAge West and GlobalHotelNetwork.com. In 2010, he was named a commissioner of travel and tourism for the State of California and, in 2011, he was named Emeritus member of the Travel Industry Management School Advisory Board at the University of Hawaii. He is a past member of the Corporate Advisory Board of Safe Kids Worldwide and a former Director of the United Way International Board. In 2008, he received the China Hotel Investment Summit 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award; and in 2010, he was recognized with the Hotel Investment Forum India Aatithya Ratna Award.

His book, “You Can’t Lead With Your Feet on the Desk,” was published March, 2011 by John Wiley & Sons.

Prior to his joining the Obama administration, Suresh Kumar spent over thirty years as an international businessman, consultant, coach and professor of management educations. Mr. Kumar has led global businesses of major US corporations and been responsible for business units across all continents. Between 1999 and 2003 Mr. Kumar headed the Worldwide Consumer Pharmaceuticals business of Johnson & Johnson and served on the corporation’s Group Operating Committee. He is credited with turning around the Emerging Markets business, establishing collaborations, developing and commercializing innovation pipeline, and building stakeholder trust in the corporation’s diverse global businesses. Mr. Kumar previously led consumer healthcare, confectionery and grooming businesses of Warner Lambert/ Pfizer as Vice President, Consumer Products for Latin America and Asia. Mr. Kumar is former member of the board of the World Self-Medication Industry (WSMI) and has served on the global councils of the American Management Association (AMA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2004 Mr. Kumar was named Distinguished Executive-in-Residence by Thunderbird School of Global Management for his contributions to global trade.

Most recently Mr. Kumar was President & Managing Partner of KaiZen Innovation®, a Management Consulting firm he founded in 2004 to “improve lives and livelihoods”. The firm specializes in developing global commerce: establishing public-private collaborations that spur development, helping businesses extend their global footprint, and installing global marketing processes and programs. Mr. Kumar has served as a consultant to leading institutions and corporations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Development Bank and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Between 2006 and 2007 Mr. Kumar served as Special Advisor to the Clinton Foundation and worked with Governments in Sub Saharan Africa and corporate CEOs to establish collaborative business models and execute farmer and market friendly programs to promote food security and stimulate economic development in the region.

Mr. Kumar has published on global management and served as adjunct faculty member at the Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University, Bombay University, India and has been appointed Professor of International Business at Rutgers University EMBA program. Between 1970 and 1985 Mr. Kumar was news and sports anchor on national television in India. He has an Economics degree from Delhi University, an MBA from Bombay University, and is alum of the Thunderbird International Consortium Program. Mr. Kumar and his wife, residents of Princeton, NJ, have lived in six countries and speak as many languages. They have two adult children.