Senior Management

Mary Saunders

Senior Vice President, Government Relations and Public Policy

Mary Saunders is Senior Vice President, Government Relations and Public Policy, at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In this position, Ms. Saunders serves as ANSI’s spokesperson and liaison to federal, state, and local government agencies and to Congress and congressional staff. She supports the activities of the ANSI National Policy Advisory Group (NPAG) and the ANSI Government Member Forum, working with the members of these groups to develop and advance the Institute’s positions and policies at all levels of government. In turn, she identifies and communicates to ANSI stakeholders emerging issues of importance for the standards and conformity assessment community.

Prior to joining ANSI in 2017, Ms. Saunders was the associate director for management resources for the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and served as a vice chair on the ANSI Board of Directors. She was responsible for all NIST-wide institutional support and administrative offices and their functions, including: workforce management, information technology and services, safety and environmental management, facilities maintenance and construction, accounting and finance, acquisitions and grants management, budget formulation, strategic planning, and emergency response. Ms. Saunders previously served as the director of NIST’s Standards Coordination Office. In this capacity, she represented NIST and its significant interests in the standards and conformity assessment community, advising the NIST director and other officials throughout the administration on policy and strategy as they relate to the federal government’s role in standardization.

She also served as deputy assistant secretary for manufacturing and services in the International Trade Administration (ITA), managing more than 200 industry specialists, economists, and international trade experts. In that capacity, she helped strengthen the competitive position of U.S. industries globally by coordinating Commerce Department strategies, policies, and programs with U.S. industries in mind.