Debadutta Dash holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting & Business Administration. As a native of India, before moving to the US in 1996, he worked with the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture and Co-operatives of the Government of India, owned his business in traditional hand-woven fabrics and traveled extensively around the world.

In the United States, he has worked for Wal Mart for more than four years in different management positions, managed PlanetGuru, the first ever South Asian newspaper and website in the State of Washington as its Co-Publisher before joining Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide in 2005 as the first "Experience Manager" for the Westin Brand.

He plays an active role in the community as volunteer, executive board member and the former President of the India Association of Western Washington (www.iaww.org) and the founder of the South Asian Music and Performing Arts Resource Center (SAMPARC).

Mr. Dash has been an alumnus of the United Way of King County Project LEAD Program and the ACLF Leadership Program.

Recently he was appointed as one of the Advisory Board members for the Center of International Business and Educational Research (CIBER) at the Global Business Center of the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He was also appointed to the board for the Asian Counseling Referral Service (ACRS) for 2009-2012 and the Pluralism Advisory Board for the Bellevue College for 2008-2010. He is also the Ambassador for the Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE) representing the East Indian Community in the Washington State. In December 2009 Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire appointed him as a Commissioner to the State Commission on Asian and Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA). He was also elected to be the Chair of the Economic Development committee for CAPAA.

Currently he works for the Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide as the Group Sales Manager and the Service culture Trainer at the Westin Hotel in Bellevue, Washington. He lives in Seattle with his wife Itu, a Clinical Specialist in Cytogenetics in the University of Washington Medical Center and daughter Ina, a Senior in the Nathan Hale High School.