Alan Bersin

Alan Bersin served as secretary of education for the state of California under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and as a member of the California State Board of Education. He previously led the San Diego Unified School District as superintendent. He was later appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, where he also served as the attorney general’s Southwest Border Representative, coordinating federal law enforcement from South Texas to Southern California. Under President Barack Obama, he was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and later assistant secretary for international affairs and chief diplomatic officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, leading strategic planning and global engagement. He was also vice president of INTERPOL for the Americas Region and a member of its executive committee. He is currently chairman of BorderWorks Group, a consulting firm specializing in border security and management, and executive chairman of Altana Trade, which applies machine learning and AI to global trade intelligence. Bersin earned an AB in government from Harvard University, attended Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, and received a JD from Yale Law School.

updated 2025