Michael E. Hensle Named Special Agent in Charge of the Milwaukee Field Office
Director Christopher Wray has named Michael E. Hensle as the special agent in charge of the Milwaukee Field Office. Mr. Hensle most recently served as the deputy assistant director of the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Hensle joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and was assigned to the Albany Field Office in New York, where he worked white-collar violations—including financial institution fraud and health care fraud—public corruption, and civil rights. In 2006, Mr. Hensle transferred to the Newark Field Office in New Jersey, where he continued to work public corruption and investigated organized crime, domestic terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction violations.
In 2008, Mr. Hensle was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI Headquarters and worked in the Infrastructure Countermeasures Unit and Biological Countermeasures Unit. In 2011, he was promoted to unit chief of the Biological Countermeasures Unit, where he led the bioterrorism program and initiatives to prevent the acquisition, production, and use of biological agents as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Mr. Hensle transferred to the Salt Lake City Field Office in 2012 for the first of several assignments. He initially led the domestic terrorism, WMD, and crisis management programs for Utah, Idaho, and Montana. In 2015, he was promoted to assistant special agent in charge over Salt Lake City’s counterterrorism, WMD, crisis management, and administrative programs and oversaw the eight resident agencies in Montana. In 2017, he led Salt Lake City’s counterintelligence, cyber, intelligence, and administrative programs and continued to oversee the resident agencies in Montana.
In 2018, Mr. Hensle was promoted to inspector in the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters. He was appointed to chief inspector in 2020, with oversight of eight inspectors and staff in the Office of Inspections who conducted inspections of the FBI’s 56 field offices, agent-involved shooting reviews, and special investigations. Later in 2020, Mr. Hensle was selected as deputy assistant director in the Inspection Division, where he continued to lead the Office of Inspections and oversaw the FBI’s internal affairs portfolio. He also coordinated audits and reviews of the FBI conducted by the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office.
Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Hensle worked in the Environmental Health and Safety Office of Emory University in Georgia, in conjunction with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. He earned a master’s degree in public health from Emory University and a bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College in New York in applied psychology.