Sunil Gulati
Encyclopedia
United States Soccer Federation
The United States Soccer Federation is the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois. It is a member of FIFA and is responsible for governing amateur and professional soccer, including the men's, women's, youth, futsal...
and special advisor to The Kraft Group and the Kraft family. Gulati is formerly President of Kraft Soccer for the New England Revolution
New England Revolution
The New England Revolution is an American professional association football club based in Foxborough, Massachusetts which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada...
in Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
, as well as a member of Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
faculty of Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Elected in March 2006, Gulati is one of the most influential figures in the development of US soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
over the past 30 years. Former USSF president and Major League Soccer founder Alan Rothenberg
Alan Rothenberg
Alan I. Rothenberg is a graduate of the University of Michigan's law school, and an influential administrative figure in the history of North American soccer who is credited with greatly contributing to the growth of the game in the United States, and the namesake of the Alan I...
called Gulati "the single most important person in the development of soccer in this country.". Gulati served as USSF Vice-President for six years and played a key role in major USSF decisions for many years prior to his election as president.
In February 2009, Gulati announced that US Soccer will bid for the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. He chaired the World Cup USA Bid Committee Board of Directors.
Gulati is also in his second stint as a lecturer in economics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he teaches introductory economics
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics is a branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of the whole economy. This includes a national, regional, or global economy...
, international economics
International economics
International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the institutions that affect them...
and sports economics. His courses are usually heavily over-subscribed, with students often camping out overnight to secure a place. In practice, the USSF has a full-time professional staff in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to handle the federation's day-to-day business (in addition to training/development facilities in Florida and California).
Biography
Gulati was born in AllahabadAllahabad
Allahabad , or Settled by God in Persian, is a major city of India and is one of the main holy cities of Hinduism. It was renamed by the Mughals from the ancient name of Prayaga , and is by some accounts the second-oldest city in India. It is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. His family moved to a small town in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
when he was five years old and grew up playing soccer. Gulati is an alumnus of Cheshire High School
Cheshire High School
Cheshire High School is located on Route 10 across from Bartlem Park in Cheshire, Connecticut. It is 15 miles north of New Haven and south of Hartford...
in Cheshire, CT. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Bucknell University
Bucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...
and earned his M.A. and M.Phil. in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He served on the Columbia Economics Faculty from 1986 to 1990. In 1991, he joined the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
through its Young Professionals Program and served as Country Economist for Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
. Gulati, who lives in the New York area, is married to Marcela Gulati and they have one son and one daughter, Emilio Kabir Gulati and Sofia Kiran Gulati.