Mike McConnell is former Vice Chairman of the International Consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, where his primary roles included serving on the firm’s Leadership Team and leading the firm’s intelligence and cyber security business. After retiring from the Navy in 1996 as a Vice Admiral, Mr. McConnell joined Booz Allen, and led the development of the firm’s Information Assurance and Intelligence business focused on policy, operations, transformation, homeland security, intelligence analytics, and counter-terrorism.
Upon being asked by President George W. Bush in 2007 to become the second Director of National Intelligence (DNI), he left Booz Allen and served as the DNI, a position of cabinet rank, and a member of the White House National Security Council for two years under Presidents Bush and Obama. As the DNI he managed the expansive national Intelligence Community – an organization of over 100,000 people, and an annual global enterprise budget of over $50B. As a Cabinet Rank Officer and member of the National Security Council, he had extensive interactions with the White House, the President’s Cabinet, Congress, international leaders, and the U.S. business community. While in government, Mr. McConnell was successful in persuading Presidents Bush and Obama and the Congress to invest an additional $17B in a strategic cyber security initiative to improve protection of the nation’s critical infrastructures. In 2009, Mr. McConnell returned to Booz Allen as an executive vice president to lead the firm’s Intelligence business. In 2011 he was elevated to the position as Vice Chairman of the firm. Mr. McConnell retired from Booz Allen in July 2014 and currently serves as a Senior Executive Advisor. Mr. McConnell also served as the Chair of the National Intelligence University Foundation and on other corporate boards.
Mr. McConnell’s career spanned over 45 years focused on international and foreign intelligence issues. His 29-year distinguished career as a U.S. Navy intelligence officer included significant assignments that impacted national security issues. During the first Gulf War, Desert Shield/Storm, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mr. McConnell served as the Intelligence Officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, and the Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney. From 1992 to 1996 he served as the Director of the National Security Agency (DIRNSA) under Presidents George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton. As DIRNSA, he led the agency during a critical period as it adapted to the multi-polar threats brought about by the end of the Cold War, providing global intelligence and information security services to the White House, Cabinet officials, Congress, and a broad array of military and civil intelligence customers. He also served as a member of the Director of Central Intelligence’s senior national intelligence leadership team, which addressed major programmatic and substantive foreign intelligence issues.
Mr. McConnell’s focus since his service as Director of NSA in 1992-96, has been to improve the cyber security posture of businesses and government agencies around the globe to better protect them from hackers, criminals, terrorists, and nation states focused on economic espionage or destruction of vital data. He continues to work closely with the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Agency to improve the nation’s cyber security defenses.
In addition to having been awarded many of the nation’s highest military awards for meritorious service, Mr. McConnell has twice received the nation’s highest award for service in the Intelligence Community, once from President Clinton and once from President George W. Bush. He has also served as the Chairman and CEO of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA). He is the 2011 recipient of INSA’s William Oliver Baker Award, which is awarded annually for sustained and excellent service in intelligence and national security.
Mr. McConnell holds a Masters degree from George Washington University, is a graduate of the National Defense University (Global Telecom), the National Defense Intelligence College (Strategic Intelligence), and holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Furman University. In addition to being a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. McConnell has also been awarded four Honorary Doctorate degrees – the most recent from George Washington University in 2008 and the University of South Florida in 2017.