Cyrus A. Ansary, author of George Washington: Dealmaker-In-Chief, has an economics degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and a law degree from Columbia University in New York. Ansary was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of American University for almost ten years, after serving as a member of that board for eighteen years. He was also an adjunct professor of corporate finance at the university. He is now Chairman Emeritus. The university annually awards the Cyrus A. Ansary Medal to a civic or corporate leader selected by its Board of Trustees. In 2014, Mount Vernon awarded the Cyrus A. Ansary Prize for Courage and Character to President George H.W. Bush.

Ansary was also a trustee of the Krupp Foundation in Essen, Germany, a member of the Woodrow Wilson Council in Washington, D.C., a trustee of the Washington Opera Society, and a trustee of the Wolf Trap Foundation in Vienna, Virginia. He was a member of the Life Guard Society of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and is now an emeritus member. Ansary is a member of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., the Economic Club of New York, the National Association for Business Economics, the CFA Society of Washington, D.C., and the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the bars of Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been listed for decades in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.