After a thirty-four-year career in the U.S. Navy, Vice Admiral Cutler Dawson served for fourteen years as the president and CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world and the twenty-ninth largest financial institution in the United States. He and his wife, Debbie, live in Alexandria, Virginia. Vice Admiral Cutler Dawson is a coauthor of From the Sea to the C-Suite: Lessons Learned from the Bridge to the Corner Office.

According to the book description of From the Sea to the C-Suite: Lessons Learned from the Bridge to the Corner Office,  "With Cutler Dawson at the helm for the last fourteen years, Navy Federal Credit Union, the world's largest credit union, has quadrupled the size of the organization and made it an industry leader in customer service. It is now one of the most fiercely trusted and smoothly run financial institutions in the world ranked by Fortune magazine as a Best Place to Work for eight years. This book reveals an honest and straightforward look at Dawson's leadership philosophy and guiding principles, offering tangible and practical insights for readers who want to learn how to chart a similar course of success--one of exponential growth without compromising a company's bedrock principles."