Mike McConnell

Mike McConnell is a retired Vice Admiral, USN, and former Vice Chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton where he served on the firm’s Leadership Team and led the firm’s intelligence and cyber security business.

With a 50-year career focused on international and foreign intelligence, Mr. McConnell brings a depth of knowledge and experience acquired from service in both the public and private sectors. His 29-year career as a US Navy intelligence officer included significant assignments that impacted national security. During Operation Desert Storm and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, 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 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 agencies.

After retiring from the US Navy in 1996, Mr. McConnell joined Booz Allen Hamilton to lead the development of the firm’s Information Assurance and Intelligence business focused on policy, operations, technology, homeland security, intelligence analytics, and counterterrorism.

Upon being asked by President George W. Bush in 2007 to become the second US 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. During this time, he successfully advocated for a multi-billion-dollar investment to substantially improve cyber security standards for the US – securing support from two U.S. Presidents and the U.S. Congress.

As the DNI, he managed the expansive national Intelligence Community – an organization of over 100,000 people, and an annual budget of over $50 billion – and he had extensive interactions with the White House, the President’s Cabinet, Congress, international leaders, and the US business community.

In 2009, Mr. McConnell returned to Booz Allen as an executive vice president to lead the firm’s Intelligence business and in 2011, he was elevated to the position of Vice Chairman of the firm – serving in that capacity until his retirement in 2014 and has served as a Senior Executive Advisor.

Mr. McConnell’s interest 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 serves on the US-based Board of Directors of Nokia for US-based business operations as well as the boards of numerous start-up companies that are developing technologies and capabilities for improved cybersecurity posture.

Mr. McConnell also served as the Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, a statewide center formed by the Florida Legislature in 2014 to help position Florida as a national leader in cybersecurity with a focus on education, workforce development, research, and community engagement. He also served as the Executive Director of the Center from 2020 until 2022.

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 US Intelligence Community – once from President Clinton and once from President George W. Bush. Mr. McConnell has also served as the Chairman and CEO of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) and 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 an M.P.A. degree from George Washington University, is a graduate of the National Defense University (Global Telecom), the National Defense Intelligence College (Strategic Intelligence), and he holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Furman University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. McConnell has been awarded four Honorary Doctorate degrees – the most recent from the University of South Florida in 2016.