Sue Gordon

Sue Gordon is an inaugural member of DRK’s Strategic Advisory Board to provide critical insights and expertise on the challenges facing the global society today, and to help the DRK board and the senior management team align its efforts to support their portfolio entrepreneurs as they tackle some of the world’s most complex problems.

The Honorable Susan (Sue) M. Gordon was appointed the fifth Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (PDDNI) on August 7, 2017. As PDDNI, Ms. Gordon was a key advisor to the President and National Security Council and led the 17-member Intelligence Community (IC). In particular, she focused on establishing a unified strategic vision, advancing intelligence integration across the IC, expanding outreach and partnerships, and driving innovation across the Community. She is a trusted authority on strategy, innovation, and leadership and is currently a consultant on technology, cyber and space issues, and global risk.

With over three decades of experience in the IC, Ms. Gordon has served in a variety of leadership roles spanning numerous intelligence organizations and disciplines. Prior to the DNI, Ms. Gordon served as the Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from 2015 to 2017. In this role, she helped the director lead the agency and manage the National System of Geospatial Intelligence. She drove NGA’s transformation to meet the challenges of a 21st-century intelligence agency. She also championed agile governance, recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, and expansion of geospatial intelligence services to the open marketplace. She is known for her commitment to diversity and inclusion and to the women and men of the IC.

Prior to her assignment with NGA, Ms. Gordon served for 27 years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), rising to senior executive positions in each of the Agency’s four directorates: operations, analysis, science and technology, and support. She joined the CIA in 1980 as an analyst in the Office of Scientific and Weapons Research, and went on to serve as the Director of the Office of Advanced Analytic Tools, Director of Special Activities in the Directorate of Science and Technology, Director for Support, and ultimately in concurrent roles as Director of the Information Operations Center and the CIA Director’s senior advisor on cyber. In 1998, she designed and drove the formation of In-Q-Tel, a private, non-profit company whose primary purpose is to deliver innovative technology solutions for the agency and the IC.

Ms. Gordon is the recipient of numerous government and industry awards, including the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award. A sports enthusiast, she was a three-year captain of the Duke women’s basketball team and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1980. Gordon is married with two grown children who have also chosen to serve their country, a beautiful granddaughter, and a very earnest Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Astro.