President, U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC),

Ron Somers is president of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), the premier business advocacy organization committed to strengthening U.S.-India commercial ties and deepening two-way trade between these two dynamic economies.

USIBC, which was created in 1975, is made up of more than 370 of the top U.S. companies investing in India, joined by two dozen global Indian companies. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USIBC has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, and New Delhi.

Previously, Somers was Unocal Corporation's chief executive in India, developing commercial opportunities in India's emerging energy market. Before that, he was managing director for India on behalf of Cogentrix Energy, tasked with setting up a 1000 MW electric power project in the Indian state of Karnataka.

During Somers' residency in India, he served on the board of directors of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company, India's first private sector oil exploration company, as well as on the board of the U.S. Educational Foundation in India, which oversees the country's Fulbright and Humphrey scholarship programs. He is currently on the International Leadership Council of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a professional graduate school preparing students for careers in cross-cultural, multilingual environments. He travels to India frequently.

Somers holds an M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English, where he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford University. He graduated with a B.A. (Honors) from Middlebury College in Vermont. Somers and his wife, Rebecca, live in Washington, D.C.