CIA Director Mike Pompeo announced Feb. 2 the selection of Gina Haspel as the agency’s new deputy director.
“Gina is an exemplary intelligence officer and a devoted patriot who brings more than 30 years of agency experience to the job,” Pompeo said. “She is also a proven leader with an uncanny ability to get things done and to inspire those around her. We are fortunate that someone of her intellect, skill and experience will be our deputy director. I know she will do an outstanding job, and I look forward to working with her closely in the years ahead.”
“What a wonderful choice for deputy director, one that will be celebrated by current and former agency officers alike,” former CIA Director Michael Hayden said. “Ms. Haspel has responded with dignity, professionalism and honor to everything the agency and nation have asked her to do. I am sure that she will be for Director Pompeo what Steve Kappes was for me — a trusted friend, lieutenant and guide to the sometimes opaque corridors of American espionage.”
Haspel is a career intelligence officer, having joined the CIA in 1985. She has extensive overseas experience and served as chief of station in several of her assignments. In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions at CIA, including as deputy director of the National Clandestine Service, deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, chief of staff for the director of the National Clandestine Service, and in the Counterterrorist Center.
Haspel has received numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service. She is the first female career CIA officer to be named deputy director.
