Juan Zarate

Juan Carlos Zarate served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. In this role, Mr. Zarate was responsible for developing and overseeing the effective implementation of the U.S. government’s counterterrorism strategy.

Prior to joining the NSC, Mr. Zarate served as the 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. Mr. Zarate also led the U.S. government’s global efforts to hunt Saddam Hussein’s assets, resulting in the return of over $3 billion of Iraqi assets from the U.S. and around the world.

Prior to working at the Department of the Treasury, Mr. Zarate served as a prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, where he worked on terrorism cases, such as the USS Cole investigation. Mr. Zarate previously worked as a federal law clerk for Chief Judge Judith Keep in the Southern District of California.

Mr. Zarate is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and a cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School. He studied as a Rotary International Fellow at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.

Mr. Zarate is the author of Forging Democracy, a book on the impact of U.S. foreign policy on democratization in Central America

Mr. Zarate was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, and he is a member of the California Bar. He is a member of Mater Dei High School’s Ring of Honor, its honorary hall of fame.

Mr. Zarate is now a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a national security consultant for CBS News.