Juan Zarate was a deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism in the George W. Bush administration. He now serves as a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in the D.C. think tank’s Transnational Threats Project.
Before joining the National Security Council, Zarate served in the Treasury Department as the assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes. While there, he led the departments domestic and overseas efforts to combat terrorist financing and money laundering systems as well as further cementing the Treasury Department’s role in counterterrorism efforts.
Zarate also served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Prevention section.
He is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School and is the author of a book on U.S. foreign policy in Central America.