FDD Welcomes Yaya Fanusie As Director of Analysis For Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance

WASHINGTON – The Foundation for Defense of Democracies welcomed Yaya J. Fanusie this week as director of analysis for its Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF). Fanusie will direct the production of the Center’s analytic targeting products, oversee the training and development of CSIF analysts and targeting officers and work towards expanding the Center’s analytic capacity.

“Yaya brings exceptional experience in analyzing terrorism and corruption and we are excited to have him on board as we expand FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance,” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of FDD and CSIF.

Fanusie spent seven years as a CIA analyst with a focus on economics and counterterrorism. He regularly briefed White House policymakers, U.S. military personnel and federal law enforcement officials. He personally briefed President George W. Bush and others on terrorism threats while assigned to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and spent three months in Afghanistan, providing analytic support to senior military officials, in 2009.

After leaving the government, Fanusie worked with a small consulting firm, where he led a team of analysts working on a multi-billion dollar recovery effort involving a global corruption ring. Most recently, he operated his own consulting practice, helping firms in strategic analysis and business due-diligence with training and supervision in analytic writing and tradecraft.

Fanusie holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

“With Yaya’s experience, CSIF will be able to design and drive cutting edge analysis that will help shape the use of economic and financial power in national security,” said Juan Zarate, CSIF’s senior counselor and former deputy national security adviser for combatting terrorism.

CSIF was launched late last year to develop research on the use of financial and economic tools to combat terrorism and protect and promote national and global security. The project promotes scholarship on how America can best use and preserve its financial and economic power to promote its interests, defend the integrity of the financial system, and protect against adversaries leveraging their own economic resources and strategies against the United States and its allies.

About the Foundation for Defense of Democracies:
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security. Founded in 2001, FDD combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications and investigative journalism in support of its mission to promote pluralism, defend democratic values and fight the ideologies that drive terrorism. Visit our website at www.defenddemocracy.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance:
FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance is a project designed to illuminate the critical intersection between illicit finance and national security. The Center relies on regional and sanctions expertise within FDD, including a core cadre of financial, economic, and area experts and analysts, to promote a greater understanding of illicit financing and economic threats. The center also designs creative and effective strategies, doctrines, and uses of financial and economic power to attack and protect against priority threats and vulnerabilities. More information on CSIF is available at www.defenddemocracy.org/csif.

Media Contact:
Matthew E. Berger, Senior Director of Communications
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