Alan Bersin

Alan Bersin
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
In office
March 27, 2010  December 31, 2011
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byJayson Ahern (acting)
Succeeded byDavid V. Aguilar (acting)
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California
In office
1993–1998
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byWilliam Braniff
Succeeded byCharles La Bella
Personal details
Born
Alan Douglas Bersin

(1946-10-15) October 15, 1946
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
SpouseLisa Foster
Children3 daughters
EducationHarvard University (BA)
Balliol College, Oxford
Yale University (JD)
ProfessionAttorney
Known for

Alan Douglas Bersin (born October 15, 1946) is an American lawyer. He also serves as an Inaugural Senior Fellow in the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, as a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and as Inaugural North America Fellow at the Canada Institute and the Mexico Institute (Wilson Center). He is Chairman of the consulting firm BorderWorks Group, and Executive Chairman of Altana Trade.

Bersin spent the better part of two decades practicing at the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, rising to become a senior partner. He then served in turn as the US Attorney for the Southern District of California and the US Border Czar, the Superintendent of the San Diego City Schools, the California Secretary of Education, and the Chairman of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. He was then the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection overseeing its 58,000-employee work force and operating budget of $12 billion, the DHS Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer, and the Vice President of INTERPOL for the Americas Region and a member of the INTERPOL Executive Committee.