Juan Zarate

Juan Carlos Zarate, Esq. is a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and serves as a senior national security analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, and is a member of the California Bar. Zarate advises companies and organizations on national, homeland, and finance-related security, technologies, and investments. He is also the Chairman and Senior Counselor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance, and he sits on several influential boards, including HSBC’s Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee and the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority.

Zarate served as the deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism from 2005 to 2009. In this role, he was responsible for developing and overseeing the U.S. government’s counterterrorism strategy and managing U.S. domestic and international responses to transnational threats, including cybersecurity. His responsibilities extended to overseeing policies related to counternarcotics, maritime security, hostages, international organized crime, money laundering, and critical energy infrastructure protection.

Prior to joining the National Security Council, Zarate served as the first assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, where he led Treasury’s domestic and international efforts to attack terrorist financing, build comprehensive anti-money laundering systems, and expand the use of Treasury powers to advance national security interests. This included developing a new brand of financial power that has been used to pressure rogue actors like North Korea and Iran. He also played a pivotal role in establishing the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of the Treasury. Zarate’s career at the Treasury Department spanned from 2001 to 2005, during which he was awarded the Treasury Medal. Before his tenure at the Treasury, he worked as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, participating in significant cases such as the USS Cole investigation.

Zarate is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He studied as a Rotary International Fellow at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. A prolific writer and speaker, Zarate has authored books including "Treasury’s War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare" and "Forging Democracy," and he discusses topics such as cyber security, the future of national economic security, and the role of the private sector in international security. His insights have enriched national and international discourse on the evolving nature of security threats and the strategic and economic context of homeland security.