FBI Recognizes Presidential Rank Award Recipients

Washington, D.C. – In a ceremony today at FBI Headquarters, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, and FBI Executive Assistant Director Donald Packham of the Human Resources Branch recognized t he recipients of the 2006 Presidential Rank Awards. These awards are given to a very select group of career civil service employees each year and are conferred by the President of the United States and are divided into two categories: the Distinguished Rank Award, awarded for extraordinary results, and the Meritorious Rank Award, given for sustained accomplishment.

“The FBI is proud to recognize 11 FBI employees whose integrity, strength, leadership, and sustained performance have earned them one of the most prestigious honors in government,” said Director Mueller. “Winning the prestigious Presidential Rank Award is an honor not only for these men and women, but for the FBI as a whole, and we are deeply proud of each of them.”

The Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive was awarded to:

The Presidential Meritorious Rank Executive was awarded to:

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Recipients of the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive Award:

T.J. Harrington, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division, has overseen some of the FBI’s most critical counterterrorism programs, including the Counterterrorism Watch Center, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the Fly Team, and the Rapid Deployment Teams.

Jonathan I. Solomon, currently the Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Office, served in a number of critical roles in the Director’s office over the past three years, including as Executive Assistant Director (EAD) for Administration. As EAD, Mr. Solomon oversaw all of the Bureau’s administrative functions, from budget to hiring to information technology. In his capacity as EAD, he oversaw the development of two critical organizational changes: first, the creation of a separate facility for the FBI’s Records Management Division, and second, the creation of the Facilities and Logistics Services Division.

Recipients of the Presidential Meritorious Rank Executive Award:

James Bernazzani, has served as the Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Office since April 2005, and has played a critical role in helping the city recover from Hurricane Katrina. His first priority was to locate and provide for FBI employees and their families. He then focused on the safety of the citizens affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and set up command centers to coordinate law enforcement’s response. Mr. Bernazzani also foresaw possible crime problems in the aftermath of the hurricane, and helped establish the multi-agency Katrina Fraud Command Center and the multi-agency Violent Crime Intelligence Center. He has provided countless hours of training to local law enforcement and public safety workers dealing with criminal threats.

Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia, who joined the FBI in 1999, currently heads the Office of Information Technology (IT) Planning and Policy. Mr. Bhagowalia co-founded the Trilogy IT Infrastructure Upgrade Program, which brought new computers, software, and secure networks to all FBI employees. He developed a comprehensive IT Governance framework to track every single project, from its cost, to its schedule, to its risk information.

Kevin R. Brock, recently retired from the FBI after serving as Principal Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Prior to his current job at the NCTC, Mr. Brock served as the Assistant Director for Intelligence in the FBI. Under his leadership, the Directorate of Intelligence grew exponentially and attracted a high-level cadre of intelligence professionals. Mr. Brock also directed a re-engineering of the FBI’s informant and asset programs that has strengthened the Bureau’s practices with regard to human intelligence.

Robert E. Casey, Jr. is currently the Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Office. Mr. Casey has distinguished himself as one of the FBI’s most influential executives in the development of the FBI’s intelligence capability over the past several years. After September 11 th, the FBI was given the mandate to build a world-class intelligence cadre. Mr. Casey was on the ground from the beginning, helping to build the Directorate of Intelligence from just a few employees to more than 400 today. Under his leadership, the number of raw intelligence reports disseminated to our partners increased from under 2 thousand to over 8 thousand reports annually. The FBI’s participation in multi-agency fusion centers rose from just a few offices to over 22 offices today.

Arthur M. Cummings II, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division, previously served as the Special Agent in Charge of both the Counterterrorism Division and the Intelligence Branch of the Washington Field Office. In the past five years, Mr. Cummings has played a central role in restructuring the FBI’s counterterrorism strategy. While at FBI Headquarters, he created a management structure with teams of agents and analysts, to provide oversight for more than 4,000 counterterrorism investigations. Together, they ensure that each individual investigation is part of the FBI’s “big picture” analysis. Mr. Cummings was also instrumental in creating the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). As the Principal Deputy Director of the NCTC, he integrated terrorism information and coordinated counterterrorism activities throughout the federal government.

Daniel R. Dzwilewski, is the Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego Field Office. In the past three years, Mr. Dzwilewski has promoted information sharing and cooperation and has increased participation on the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force by more than 300 percent. He led the FBI’s efforts to increase communication between U.S. and Mexican officials, in order to stop terrorist groups and criminal enterprises from entering the United States. Together, we have identified and dismantled several human trafficking and drug smuggling organizations operating along the Mexican border. In another effort to improve information sharing, Mr. Dzwilewski helped to create the San Diego Regional Intelligence Network – an “alert network” that collects and shares information related to terrorist and criminal activities with law enforcement, other government agencies, and the private sector.

Anne Gulyassy is the Deputy General Counsel for the Litigation Branch, in the Office of the General Counsel. Ms. Gulyassy supervises more than 100 employees in the Litigation Branch. She and her staff represent the interests of the Director, other FBI employees, and the FBI itself in civil lawsuits challenging our investigative and intelligence activities. After 9/11, Ann created a new unit to handle the spike in the number of Freedom of Information cases. She also found and put into place an automated system for redacting all documents produced in civil litigation cases, to ease the burden on her paralegal staff.

Kerry E. Haynes is currently the Executive Assistant Director for the Science and Technology Branch. Three years ago, Director Mueller appointed Mr. Haynes as the Assistant Director for the Operational Technology Division. At that time, Kerry was detailed to the FBI from the CIA, where he had worked for nearly 25 years. In August 2005, Mr. Haynes retired from the CIA, and immediately joined the FBI. He reinvented the Operational Technology Division to meet the challenges of the FBI’s new intelligence mission. He has cultivated key alliances with many of our partners in both the intelligence and high-tech communities, to the benefit of the Bureau. Mr. Haynes also expanded the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, or RCFL, program. RCFLs provide one-stop shopping for the examination of digital forensic evidence in terrorism, child pornography, and financial crimes cases, among others. During his tenure, the FBI has doubled the number of RCFLs from 5 to 10, in less than three years.