Director James B. Comey has named John Giacalone assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. Mr. Giacalone most recently served as the division’s deputy assistant director.

Mr. Giacalone started his career as a special agent with the FBI in 1991. He was first assigned to the New York Field Office, where he made substantial contributions in the fight against organized crime. While there, he formed a highly successful interagency task force that won important victories against organized crime in New York City’s Garment District.

In 2003, Mr. Giacalone transferred to the Philadelphia Division as a supervisory special agent, where he created and directed the first Field Intelligence Group in Philadelphia. He next served as deputy on-scene commander in the Iraqi theater of operations beginning in 2005 and coordinated the efforts of the FBI, the intelligence community, and the U.S. military.

In 2008, he joined the Attorney General Guidelines Task Force, which drafted the FBI’s new domestic investigative policy. Two years later, he was appointed chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s Domestic Terrorism Strategic Operations Section at FBI Headquarters.

He returned to the New York Field Office in 2011 as special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division.

Mr. Giacalone received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management and finance from Adelphi University. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.