Trump's US delegation to have 15 CEOs; business talks likely on February 25

A trade deal is not the only part of US President Donald Trump’s visit that is shrouded in mystery. With just about 10 days to go before Air Force One lands at Ahmedabad airport for a Howdy Modi-like show that had wowed Houston and then flies Trump and his team to New Delhi for a round of hard talk, even the list of business delegation accompanying Trump has been kept under wraps.
 
An official dealing with the arrangements said “there’s complete silence in the US”.  In fact, an American team will reach India in the next two days for the next level of checks, it is learnt. With both sides expected to keep their respective interests in mind, hard-nosed negotiation on all critical issues, including on US-India trade, is likely a day or two ahead of Trump’s arrival.

 
The last-moment talks on trade will have a bearing on the business delegation as well as on the discussions at the chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) meet scheduled for February 25. While a list has been prepared and itineraries of the business guests are being fine-tuned, changes are possible later, an official pointed out cautiously. The plan now is that invites would be sent this weekend once there’s a go-ahead from the White House. Stay tuned, is all that officials want to commit at this point.
 

But sources in the know said Trump’s business delegation with around 15 CEOs would represent sectors ranging from finance and banking to information technology and retail. The top names doing the rounds include Mastercard President & CEO Ajay Banga, WaterHealth International President & CEO Sanjay Bhatnagar, AECOM Chairman & CEO Michael S Burke, Cisco Chairman Emeritus John Chambers, OSI Systems CEO Deepak Chopra, Amway Co-Chairman Douglas DeVos, AES Corporation President & CEO Andrés Gluski, MoneyGram Chairman & CEO Alexander Holmes, Encore Capital CEO & President Ashish Masih, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf, Hewlett Packard Enterprise President & CEO Antonio Neri, S&P Gobal CEO Douglas L Peterson, Varex Imaging CEO Sunny Sanyal, Aquatech Chairman & CEO Venkee Sharma, American Tower Corporation CEO James Taiclet, and PayPal President & CEO Dan Schulman, among others. When asked about leading names of India origin such as Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, officials refused to confirm if they too would be part of the delegation. On the India side, leading businesses likely to be invited to the CEOs’ round table during Trump’s visit include Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, N Chandrasekaran, Anand Mahindra, A M Naik, and Sunil Mittal, among others.

The caveat is there’s nothing official about it as yet, except that Trump will be in India on February 24 and 25.