Elaine K. Dezenski

Elaine K. Dezenski serves as senior director and head of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

With more than two decades of leadership in public, private, and international organizations, Elaine is a globally recognized expert and thought leader on geopolitical risk, supply chain security, anti-corruption, and national security.

Elaine served as senior director at the World Economic Forum from 2010 to 2015, where she led the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative and launched the Forum’s Global Risk Response Network, a global platform designed to address a broad range of macro-level risks and their implications for business and society.

Elaine launched LumiRisk LCC, a risk advisory practice, in 2015. In 2017, she served as a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and as a lecturer of business ethics in Yale’s Program on Ethics, Politics, and Economics. In 2020–2021, she served on the newly formed Chairman’s Council on China Competition at the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

She has held both political and career positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including deputy and acting assistant secretary for policy and director of cargo and trade policy. She has also held senior roles at INTERPOL, Cross Match Technologies, and Siemens Corporation.

She is vice chair of Integrity Initiatives International, a non-governmental organization fighting grand corruption, and serves on the Transportation Security Administration’s Aviation Security Advisory Committee and as chair of its Air Cargo Security Subcommittee.

Elaine holds an M.A. in public policy from Georgetown University and a B.A. in international relations from Wheaton College, Massachusetts.