Honoree: Manav Kumar

Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel
AECOM
Yale Law School

Manav Kumar is currently the senior vice president, deputy general counsel of AECOM, a leading infrastructure consulting firm delivering professional services throughout the project. In this role, he also serves as corporate secretary and oversees AECOM’s public affairs initiatives, including government relations and communications. He previously served as vice president and chief of staff to the chairman & CEO of AECOM.

In addition to his leadership position within AECOM’s legal function over the past two years, Kumar has led or played a key part in several of the company’s most transformative and critical projects. He co-led the multi-year process to spin-off and ultimately sell the company’s government services division in 2020, including its $4 billion in annual revenue and 19,000 employees. Similarly, he co-led a set of three subsequent transactions between 2021 and 2022 to divest a series of construction-related businesses and complete AECOM’s strategic shift into a professional services firm.

Kumar played an integral role as AECOM successfully navigated two years of public issues with shareholder activism and managed the governance and public relations aspects of the company’s transition of its executive leadership and board of directors. He continues to play a similar role in many of the company’s complicated or controversial initiatives, recently including the issuance of the first dividend in the company’s history, the move of the company’s corporate headquarters, and leadership of its government relations function during the legislative process that yielded the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Prior to joining, Kumar served both as deputy counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and chief Olympics officer for the City of Los Angeles during its successful pursuit of the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games. As the Mayor’s chief aide on the bid for the 2028 Games, he managed mayoral and city efforts related to the bidding process, including the substantive development of the proposed Games plan, drafting and negotiation of key legal agreements, coordination with the International Olympic Committee, and management of local, state, and federal relationships.