Special Assistant to FBI Director Named Executive Assistant Director for Administration

A special assistant to the FBI Director who has been tasked with overseeing the FBI’s reorganization and re-engineering implementation has been named the bureau’s Executive Assistant Director for Administration, where he will continue to spearhead those efforts.

W. Wilson Lowery, Jr., an IBM veteran who led a similar effort for the technology giant in the mid-1990’s, will replace Robert J. Chiaradio, who is leaving the FBI after 18 years for a position in the private sector. As Executive Assistant Director, Lowery will build on what Director Robert S. Mueller has called the necessity for the FBI to be “more flexible, agile and mobile in its capacity to respond to the array of difficult and challenging national security and criminal threats facing the United States.”

Mueller has emphasized that the FBI “must become better at shaping its workforce, collaborating with its partners, applying technology to support investigations, operations, and analyses protecting its information, and developing core competencies.” Mueller said Lowery “brings the right combination of experience and vision,” as well as a “track record of success in the key areas that allow the transformation of the FBI into the law enforcement, counterterrorism and counterintelligence organization necessary to be effective and successful in the 21st century.”

Mueller said about Chiaradio: “Bob has made great contributions to the FBI, particularly in the White Collar Crime program, and most recently, in the critically important area of information technology. Bob has been key to the development of the Virtual Case File, which promises to radically improve our ability to manage investigative files, and he has been an important part of my overall efforts to improve information management and technologies in the FBI.”

The Executive Assistant Director position was created by Director Mueller in December as one of four senior management positions designed to oversee key FBI functions and narrow the supervisory span of control and greatly increase efficiency, accountability and oversight. Mueller, along with Attorney General Ashcroft, last month unveiled the second phase of the FBI’s reorganization plan, which outlined the FBI’s strategic priorities and set forth the actions and internal changes needed to meet its top three goals of protecting the American people from terrorist and cyber-based attacks, from espionage, and from high technology crimes.

Lowery is expected to assume his new responsibilities in early July.