Alex Zerden

Alex Zerden currently serves in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC), coordinating Treasury efforts to combat priority illicit finance threats from nation states, terrorist groups, and criminal networks. From 2018-2019, Alex led the Treasury Department’s office at U.S. Embassy Kabul as the Financial Attaché to Afghanistan. Alex gained additional interagency experience on detail to the White House National Economic Council where he covered a diverse domestic and international economic portfolio. He joined the executive branch as a Presidential Management Fellow after conducting financial oversight at the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and founding a consulting company. Alex began his career assisting U.S. victims of terrorism and other human rights abuses, including 9/11 survivors and their families, to pursue justice and accountability from terrorist financiers.

For over a decade, Alex has worked at the intersection of law, policy, financial services, and national security in the public and private sectors to protect the integrity of the U.S. and international financial systems from abuse by malign actors while promoting economic growth and development. He has published and lectured extensively on issues involving anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), economic sanctions, anti-corruption, cybersecurity, and FinTech.

Alex holds a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Tufts University in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. He resides in Washington, D.C.