William R. Evanina was a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He currently serves as founder and chief executive officer of the Evanina Group, advising chief executive officers and boards of directors on strategic corporate risk. He also serves on the advisory board of Peraton in Herndon, VA.

Evanina became the first Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in 2020 after serving in that role since 2014. As the head of counterintelligence (CI) for the US government, Evanina was responsible for leading and supporting the CI and security activities of the US intelligence community, government, and at-risk private-sector entities. Under NCSC, he oversaw programs such as the National Insider Threat Task Force; personnel security and background investigations; information technology protection standards and compliance; CI cyber operations; supply chain risk management; and programs to raise awareness of threats to US critical infrastructure. Under Evanina’s leadership, NCSC produced the US president’s National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America 2020-2022 which has been instrumental in raising awareness of foreign intelligence threats to critical infrastructure sectors and private-sector executives. Evanina also chaired the National Counterintelligence Policy Board and the Allied Security and Counterintelligence Forum, each comprised of senior CI and security leaders from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Evanina also served as chair of the NATO Counterintelligence Panel. 

Prior to his selection as the NCSC director, Evanina served as the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s counterespionage group and assistant special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s Washington Field Office. Evanina served over thirty-one years of distinguished federal service, twenty-four of which took place as a special agent with the FBI. Evanina’s government career began in 1989 as a project manager with the General Services Administration.

Evanina was born and raised in Peckville, PA. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Wilkes University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Arcadia University.