Sean M. Joyce
Former Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch, FBI
Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Biography
Sean M. Joyce was appointed the deputy director of the FBI in September 2011, where he has oversight for the FBI’s 36,000 employees.
With more than 20 years of service in the FBI, Mr. Joyce brings a wide range of operational and leadership experience to the profession. Immediately prior to his appointment as deputy director, Mr. Joyce was the executive assistant director (EAD) of the FBI’s National Security Branch. In this position, he oversaw the FBI’s counterterrorism, counterintelligence, weapons of mass destruction, and intelligence programs, as well as the Terrorist Screening Center. He was also the FBI’s lead intelligence official, responsible for coordination and liaison with the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and the rest of the intelligence community.
Prior to serving as EAD, he was the assistant director of the FBI’s International Operations Division, a position he was promoted to in October 2009 after having previously served as the deputy assistant director. As assistant director, he was responsible for 75 foreign and domestic locations in support of the FBI’s global mission to defeat national security and criminal threats by building a worldwide network of trusted partners and strengthening the FBI’s international capabilities.
Mr. Joyce has also served as chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s International Terrorism Operations Section, with responsibility for international terrorism matters within the United States. In 2007, he was assigned to the Washington Field Office as assistant special agent in charge. Among his other international operations experience, Mr. Joyce was designated legal attaché to Prague in August 2005 and in 2007 received an investigative excellence award for his accomplishments.
In 2003, he was designated the supervisory senior resident agent (SSRA) for the Fort Worth Resident Agency, Dallas Field Office. As the SSRA, he was responsible for the counterterrorism squad, which earned the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2004. The next year, Mr. Joyce received the same award for his work in another counterterrorism matter. After his return to the Dallas Field Office in 1998, Mr. Joyce served as a SWAT Team Leader before being named the supervisory special agent over the violent crime squad in 2002.
In 1994, Mr. Joyce was selected as a member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team located in Quantico, Virginia. Prior to this assignment, he investigated Colombian narcotics matters in the Miami Field Office and violent crime in the Fort Worth Resident Agency, Dallas Field Office. Mr. Joyce began his career as an FBI special agent in 1987.
Mr. Joyce is currently a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Executive Committee, and previously served as the chairman of the IACP Committee on Terrorism. He is also a member of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and serves on its Homeland Security Intelligence Council.
A Boston native, he holds degrees from Boston College and Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.