June 3, 2019

Charles Spencer Named Assistant Director of the International Operations Division

Director Christopher Wray has named Charles Spencer as the assistant director of the FBI’s International Operations Division. Mr. Spencer most recently served as special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office in Florida.

Mr. Spencer joined the FBI as a special agent in 1998 and was assigned to the Washington Field Office, where he worked on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2005 and oversaw the FBI’s gun vault. He deployed to Iraq in 2007 for the FBI.

Mr. Spencer transferred to the Oklahoma City Field Office in 2008 as the supervisor of its Joint Terrorism Task Force. In 2013, he was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the national security branch in the New Orleans Field Office, where he was in charge of programs covering weapons of mass destruction, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cybercrimes, surveillance, and crisis management.

He was named the deputy assistant director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2015, and put in charge of the Jacksonville office a year later.

As head of the International Operations Division, Mr. Spencer manages the FBI’s legal attaché program, which builds relationships with foreign law enforcement and intelligence partners. The division also provides training programs for international law enforcement partners.

Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Spencer was an engineer in the commercial nuclear power industry. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University. He was awarded the FBI’s Shield of Bravery in 2011 for an encounter with a heavily armed domestic terrorism subject.