TL;DRAnthropic named Tino Cuellar its first chief global affairs officer to manage government ties amid Pentagon blacklist and export fights
Anthropic has named Mariano-Florentino Cuellar its first chief global affairs officer, hiring a veteran policy hand at a moment when the AI company’s relationship with the US government remains deeply strained. Cuellar will report to Anthropic president Daniela Amodei and work from the company’s San Francisco headquarters, a spokesperson told Reuters.
His job will include managing relationships with the US government and the growing number of countries where Anthropic is expanding. Cuellar, who goes by Tino, is a former California Supreme Court justice and most recently served as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a role he held until July.
He also served as a special assistant in Barack Obama’s White House, where he worked on regulatory policy and public safety. At Carnegie, he co-chaired a bipartisan task force on nuclear proliferation and US national security, a domain some AI leaders have cited as a model for governing the technology’s risks.
A 2025 study co-led by Cuellar helped inform the passage of California’s SB 53, the first US law focused specifically on AI safety. Anthropic endorsed the bill, which protects AI whistleblowers, requires high-revenue developers to report on safety standards and incidents, and carries a maximum fine of one million dollars per violation.
