Mike’s career has spanned more than 40 years focused on international development 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 Desert Shield/Storm and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mike 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. During the same period, 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.

In addition to having been awarded many of the nation's highest military awards for meritorious service, Mike has twice received the nation's highest award for service in the intelligence community, once by President Clinton and once by 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.

Mike holds an M.P.A. from The George Washington University, is a graduate of the National Defense University (global telecommunications), the National Defense Intelligence College (strategic intelligence), and holds a B.A. in economics from Furman University. In addition to being a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mike has also been awarded three honorary doctorate degrees—the most recent from The George Washington University in 2008.

Profile updated July 2014