October 7, 2014

Clifford Holly Named Assistant Director of the FBI Security Division

Director James B. Comey has named Clifford Holly assistant director (AD) in charge of the Security Division at FBI Headquarters (FBIHQ). Mr. Holly most recently served as deputy assistant director for the Training Division at Quantico, Virginia.

Mr. Holly began his career as a special agent with the FBI in 1990. He was first assigned to the Sacramento Division.

In 1996, he was promoted to a supervisory special agent (SSA), and he supervised the UNABOM investigation in the Sacramento Division. Mr. Holly also investigated violent, white-collar, and drug violations and was a firearms instructor and member of the SWAT team.

Mr. Holly was transferred to the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) in Quantico, Virginia, as an SSA in the Crisis Management Unit in 2001. During his time there, he responded to several critical incidents, including events on September 11 in New York and the D.C. sniper case.

In 2004, Mr. Holly was promoted to assistant section chief in the Counterterrorism Division and oversaw program management in the areas of domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Holly was promoted in 2005 to assistant special agent in charge (ASAC) in the Richmond Division. In this role, he served as the division’s first National Security Branch ASAC. During this time, he also served as assistant to the senior federal law enforcement official on-scene in response to Hurricane Katrina and deployed as on-scene commander of FBI personnel in Afghanistan.

Mr. Holly was selected as section chief of CIRG’s hazardous devices operations section and also served in the U.S. government’s Joint Program Office to combat terrorists’ use of explosives in the U.S. Mr. Holly was appointed special agent in charge of the FBI Albany Division in 2010, where he served until his promotion to deputy assistant director in 2012.

Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Holly served four years as a combat engineer officer and platoon commander in the United States Marine Corps. He is a 1985 graduate of Alfred University.