Mario Mancuso
Partner–Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
A leading authority on U.S. and international security and economic issues, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Mario Mancuso focuses his practice at the intersection of law, policy and global commerce, providing transaction, regulatory and policy solutions to clients worldwide.
As under secretary—a position to which he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate—from 2007 to 2009, Mr. Mancuso led the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and was the most senior U.S. government official with direct responsibility for international trade and investment matters that implicated U.S. national security or foreign policy interests. Immediately prior to serving as under secretary, Mr. Mancuso served as deputy assistant secretary of defense, special operations and combating terrorism.
During his tenure in government, Mr. Mancuso played a prominent role in key initiatives, including:
Export Control, Economic Sanctions, Anti-Boycott. He developed and implemented BIS’s global export control and anti-boycott policy and enforcement program and helped design the regulatory contours of the U.S. government’s international economic sanctions programs.
Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment. He served as a senior decision-making official in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), helped draft the implementing regulations for the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 (FINSA), reviewed more than 200 CFIUS transactions as a regulator and served as an invited member of the CFIUS Advisory Board of the National Intelligence Council of the United States.
Strategic Technology and Innovation Policy. He chaired and supervised all of the international strategic technology dialogues for the United States, including the U.S.-China High Technology and Strategic Trade Working Group, the U.S.-India High Technology Cooperation Group and the U.S.-Israel High Technology Forum.
National Security and Foreign Policy. He served as the senior civilian U.S. defense official with immediate responsibility for the global special operations and counterterrorism portfolio. While at the Pentagon, Mr. Mancuso helped write the National Strategy to Combat Terrorism, the National Security Strategy and the Quadrennial Defense Review and served on the Department of Defense Advisory Board for the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Near East-South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, the George C. Marshall European Center for Strategic Studies and the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies.
Before entering government service, Mr. Mancuso spent nearly a decade in the private sector as a corporate lawyer advising clients on international M&A and capital markets transactions.
Mr. Mancuso received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University and his J.D. from New York University Law School. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a visiting senior fellow for international security at the Hudson Institute and a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
