Rick Ledgett

Rick has four decades of intelligence, cyber security and cyber operations experience, including 29 years with the National Security Agency (NSA), the largest intelligence organization in the U.S., where he served as Deputy Director from January 2014 until his retirement in April 2017. In that capacity, he led a global entity with almost 200 operating locations around the world and acted as the Agency’s chief operating officer, responsible for providing foreign intelligence and protecting the nation’s most important national security-related networks and information.

Rick led NSA’s Media Leaks Task Force, responsible for the totality of the Agency’s efforts following the unauthorized disclosure of classified information in June 2013. He also led the NSA’s 24/7 Threat Operations Center (NTOC), responsible for identifying and countering cyber threats to the national security systems. Rick was the Intelligence Community’s first National Intelligence Manager for Cyber, serving as principal advisor to the Director of National Intelligence on all cyber matters. In this capacity, he was responsible for integrating cyber activities across 16 intelligence agencies and numerous international partners, and he developed the first National Intelligence Strategy for cyber. He was also the DNI’s Director for Collection, overseeing all of the Intelligence Community’s collection programs.

Previous jobs at NSA included leading global collection and cryptanalytic operations, global language and analytic operations, and all NSA activities in the Pacific area. He was an instructor and course developer at the National Cryptologic School and an adjunct instructor at the National Intelligence University. Rick spent nearly 11 years in the U.S. Army and completed six field tours between the Army and the NSA.