FBI Director Renames and Announces Additions to Advisory Board

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III today announced that the Science and Technology Advisory Board will be renamed the Director's Advisory Board. Director Mueller also named four additions to the board: Lee H. Hamilton, Charles S. Robb, Richard L. Thornburgh, and James Q. Wilson.

The Science and Technology Advisory Board was authorized by Congress in February 2003 with a charge to independently advise the Director on matters relating to science, technology, research, engineering, information management, and other matters of special interest to the FBI. The changes announced today effectively expand the scope of the advisory board's area of interest beyond science and technology to include matters related to the overall management and transformation efforts of the FBI. The board's focus is at the strategic level, suggesting and assessing organizational strategies. The board meets on a quarterly basis and is chaired by Arthur Money, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Information.

Director Mueller said, "I am gratified that these four distinguished individuals have agreed to serve on the advisory board. Each brings a wealth of experience and knowledge and a proven track record of accomplishment in government service and the private sector. I look forward to working with them and getting their insights on a wide range of issues. We will be discussing where the FBI should be going in the short and long term, how to adapt to a changing mission, and the FBI's role in a shrinking world. They will be a tremendous asset to the Bureau."

Lee H. Hamilton is a member of the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council and served as vice chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. He is also president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Mr. Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana's Ninth District. During his tenure, he served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993, the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, and chaired the Joint Economic Committee. He served as a commissioner on the United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission) and was co-chair with former Senator Howard Baker on the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos.

Charles "Chuck" Robb is a professor of law and public policy at George Mason University School of Law. He served as co-chair of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD Commission). He was lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1978 to 1982 and governor from 1982 to 1986. He was a member of the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2001, where he served on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Intelligence Committees. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced law with Williams and Connolly in the 1970s and Hunton and Williams in the 1980s. He also served as Marine Corps officer and commanded an infantry company in combat in Vietnam.

Richard "Dick" Thornburgh is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and currently chairs a NAPA panel convened at the request of Congress to assess the progress of the reorganization and transformation of the FBI. He is also counsel at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, Nicholson, Graham LLP. Mr. Thornburgh previously served as undersecretary general, Department of Administration and Management, United Nations; attorney general of the United States; governor, state of Pennsylvania; U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania; and assistant attorney general of the United States, Criminal Division.

James Q. Wilson is the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University in California, a professor emeritus at UCLA, and chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Wilson taught political science at Harvard University from 1961 to 1987. He is a former chairman of the White House Task Force on Crime (1966), the National Advisory Commission on Drug Abuse Prevention (1972-73), the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime (1981), and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1985-90). He previously served on the President's Council on Bioethics, and on the board of directors for the New England Electric System, Protection One, and State Farm Mutual Insurance.