The Honorable James R. Clapper served as the fourth and longest-tenured U.S. Director of National Intelligence until January 2017. In this position, Mr. Clapper led the United States Intelligence Community and served as the principal intelligence advisor to President of the United States of America.
Mr. Clapper began his military career in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and it culminated as a lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force as the 11th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. His intelligence-related positions over his 32 years in uniform included Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence at Headquarters, US Air Force during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and Director of Intelligence for three combatant commands: US Forces, Korea; Pacific Command, and Strategic Air Command. Directly following his retirement from an active military position, Mr. Clapper worked in industry for six years as an executive in three successive companies with the Intelligence Community as his business focus. He also served as a consultant and advisor to Congress and to the Departments of Defense and Energy, and as a member of a variety of government panels, boards, commissions, and advisory groups.
Mr. Clapper returned to the government two days after 9/11 as the third Director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), serving in this capacity for almost five years, transforming it into the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) as it currently exists. Prior to becoming the Director of National Intelligence, Mr. Clapper served for over three years in two Administrations as the second Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, where he served as the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on intelligence, counterintelligence, and security matters for the Department. In this capacity, he was also dual hatted as the Director of Defense Intelligence for the DNI.
Mr. Clapper earned a bachelor’s degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in political science from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, and an honorary doctorate in strategic intelligence from the then Joint Military Intelligence College.