Director Christopher Wray has named James A. Cochran as the special agent in charge of the Operational Support Division of the New York Field Office. Mr. Cochran most recently served as the chief inspector at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cochran joined the FBI as a special agent in 1991. He was assigned to the St. Louis Field Office, where he investigated complex financial crime matters and served as a firearms and defensive tactics instructor. In 1993, he transferred to the Cape Girardeau Resident Agency, a two-agent office where he covered seven counties in southeast Missouri.

In 1998, Mr. Cochran transferred to the Firearms Training Unit of the Training Division, instructing new agents. He also served as the program manager for the Firearms Instructor School. In 1999, he moved to the New Agent Training Unit, where he provided oversight to new agent trainees.

In 2001, Mr. Cochran moved to the Springfield Field Office in Illinois, where he supervised all investigations in a 14-county area and led several task forces. He returned to the Firearms Training Unit in 2006 as a team leader. He was responsible for the FBI’s field firearms program, the Firearms Instructor School, firearms instructor recertification, firearms policy, budgeting, and range operations.

Mr. Cochran was selected to serve as the special assistant to the executive assistant director of the Human Resources Branch in 2012 and was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Administrative Branch of the Newark Field Office in 2015. He was promoted to inspector in 2017 and selected as chief inspector in 2018. As chief inspector, Mr. Cochran led the independent reviews of agent-involved shootings, field office operations, and program management at Headquarters.

Before joining the FBI, Mr. Cochran was a senior auditor for KPMG in Richmond, Virginia, and a compliance officer with Farmers and Merchants National Bank. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Shenandoah College.