Director Christopher Wray has named Robert R. Wells as the executive assistant director of the National Security Branch at FBI Headquarters in Washington. Mr. Wells will oversee all national security investigative and intelligence operations, including counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and weapons of mass destruction cases, as well as the Terrorist Screening Center. He most recently served as the assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division.

Mr. Wells began his career as an FBI special agent in 2003 and was first assigned to the Washington Field Office. Mr. Wells worked counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters and served as a crisis negotiator. He was promoted to supervisory special agent and was assigned to the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters in 2010.

In 2011, Mr. Wells transferred to the Louisville Field Office in Kentucky and served as supervisory special agent of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He was responsible for all international and domestic terrorism investigations handled by the field office, as well as the Weapons of Mass Destruction Program and special events.

Mr. Wells was promoted in 2015 to assistant section chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section of the Counterterrorism Division. In 2017, he was named assistant special agent in charge in the Washington Field Office, where he was responsible for all international terrorism investigations in Washington and Northern Virginia.

In 2018, Mr. Wells was promoted to chief of staff for the FBI deputy director. He led the deputy’s staff and helped with oversight of the criminal, national security, and intelligence programs in the FBI. In 2019, Mr. Wells was promoted to deputy assistant director over the China Branch of the Counterintelligence Division at Headquarters.

Director Wray appointed Mr. Wells as the special agent in charge of the Charlotte Field Office in North Carolina in 2020. Wray named him the assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division in 2022.

Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Wells served as a U.S. probation officer in the Western District of Kentucky. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Western Kentucky University.