Anna Saito Carson

Anna Saito Carson is the senior vice president of development at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). As a member of the executive team, she leads the Center’s fundraising efforts and development strategy and serves as a trusted advisor to and costrategist with the CEO to align fundraising strategies with CNAS’s institutional and programmatic priorities.

Saito Carson is a global fundraising and business development executive spearheading partnership efforts at the intersection of business and policy. Across her career in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, she gained a reputation as a startup expert for establishing, operationalizing, and revamping programs while implementing new public-private partnership strategies to support business objectives and further organizational missions.

Before joining CNAS in November 2018, Saito Carson served as head of strategic accounts for Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council (GBPC)—a specialized foresight and strategic analysis unit within the global management consulting firm. During her tenure, she relaunched and institutionalized the CEO membership program from the ground up and defined, marketed, and monetized GBPC’s offerings to clients—efforts that resulted in unparalleled membership revenue growth between 2016 and 2018.

Previously, Saito Carson was director of corporate relations, strategic planning, and development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In this position, she led corporate partnerships and played an instrumental role in securing and standing up the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development—a multimillion-dollar effort and the largest programmatic corporate grant in CSIS’s 50-year history at the time. Saito Carson also championed stakeholder outreach strategies for this initiative to elevate the policy dialogue on global development issues by targeting thought leaders from governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and philanthropies. Earlier in her career, she worked at Deutsche Bank, the World Bank, and the Japan Center for International Finance.

Saito Carson holds an MA in international relations and international economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a BA in international studies and Spanish/Latin American studies from American University. As a multicultural, multilingual business executive, she was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and has traveled internationally to influence C-level outreach and lead strategic partnerships. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, volunteers at the Alexandria Country Day School, and is a Girl Scout troop coleader. In 2022, she was accepted to join Chief, a private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders.

Saito Carson lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, with her family.