Alex Zerden

Alex Zerden is the founder and principal of Capitol Peak Strategies, a FinTech, digital asset, and emerging technologies advisory firm. He is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As a regulatory lawyer, economic policymaker, and financial diplomat, Alex brings fifteen years of public and private sector experience at the intersection of financial services, national security, and law with a focus on financial regulation, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), economic sanctions, anti-corruption, financial enforcement and oversight investigations, economic crisis response, and public-private partnerships. Alex began his career representing U.S. and international victims of terrorism. He has worked across the U.S. government to protect the financial system from abuse and promote economic growth, including at the Treasury Department, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), White House National Economic Council, House of Representatives, and Senate. From 2018-2019, Alex deployed to Afghanistan to lead the Treasury Department office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Alex has published extensively on issues involving AML/CFT, economic sanctions, anti-corruption, cybersecurity, and FinTech.