William P. Crowell

William Perry Crowell (born November 26, 1940) is the former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency. He served from February 1994 until September 1997.

Early life Crowell was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1940. His family moved to Dallas, TX in 1952 where he attended Woodrow Wilson High School. He was a member of the ROTC reaching the rank of Lt. Colonel, was a member of the rifle team and led the Pershing Rifles performance group. In 1956 he was elected President of Key Club International, a high school community service organization of 65,000 members and in that capacity traveled extensively, including a trip with Radio Free Europe to European capitals for meetings with senior officials of West Germany, Berlin, Paris and London.

Professional career Early NSA career 1962 –1989 Crowell entered on duty with the National Security Agency in July 1962. His first assignment was as a recruiter for Masters and PhD graduates in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science at leading universities. After serving in several capacities in HR, he accepted a division chief assignment overseas. Upon completing that assignment, he returned to headquarters as a special assistant to the Director NSA in the Office of the executive director and served under two directors of the Agency in that capacity. During the remainder of his early career at NSA he served in a wide variety of assignments including Head of special projects for A Group (Operations Analysis); Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence (and acting Chief) for A Group; Chief of Staff for A2, Deputy Chief R&D for military systems; Assistant Deputy Director for Administration, Chief of the Science and Technology Organization; Chief of the Analysis Organization for the Soviet Union; and deputy director for Plans and Programs. In July 1989 he resigned from the National Security Agency.

Aerospace Industry: 1989-1990 Vice President at Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation (1989–1990) In 1989 Crowell became vice president and Director of Space Systems of Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation. Atlantic Aerospace worked in many areas of research and development, including imagery processing techniques, signals processing, mathematics research, high-precision radar, and low-observable technology. Mr. Crowell established a new business that drew upon the technology strengths of the company to produce products for the Intelligence Community and successfully positioned the company to perform satellite systems work for the Aerospace Corporation and the NRO.

Chief of Staff, NSA: 1990–1991 Crowell returned to the NSA in 1990 just days before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to become Chief of Staff of the Agency. As Chief of Staff, Mr. Crowell directed the daily activities of the office of the Director and deputy director of NSA, including the oversight of congressional relations and external customer relations. He represented the Director and deputy director in external activities, including public speeches, intelligence community boards, congressional testimony and oversight boards. In response to the challenges of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Mr. Crowell developed a number of information systems, including networks, information displays, analyst support systems, and video-conferencing systems that provided the Directorate with access to real time information and also were used to improve analyst interaction and production.

Deputy Director for Operations, National Security Agency: 1991-1994 The National Security Operations Center is responsible for carrying out the Signals Intelligence mission of the National Security Agency (NSA). This involves operating collection facilities across the globe, processing the signals that are collected, and producing intelligence reports for high-level policy makers and military leaders.

During his tenure, Mr. Crowell implemented significant changes to the scope, cost, and efficiency of these operations. He closed down the majority of conventional collection sites, which had employed thousands of people, and replaced them with a new structure of remote collection systems located in three regional collection facilities. He also initiated the development of new collection systems that focused on modern telecommunications and information technologies, as well as the emerging global Internet.

Additionally, he encouraged the development of tools to enhance analytic efficiency and effectiveness, such as high-performance networks, automated textual analysis and language support systems, and artificial intelligence techniques. Mr. Crowell played a key role in establishing the Regional Centers, which were instrumental in enabling the NSA to expand and develop its military workforce with expertise in all areas of cryptology.

Deputy Director, National Security Agency: February 1994 – September 1997 President Clinton appointed Mr. Crowell as deputy director in February 1994, the senior civilian position in the National Security Agency. In this position, he served as chief operating officer of the Agency, guiding and directing the development of strategies and policy and serving as the principal advisor to the Director. He represented the Agency before congressional committees, presidential boards, and the public media. He fostered broad reexamination of core business processes, resulting in dramatic changes in strategic direction designed to cope with the continuing and rapid changes in cryptography, communications and information technology.

Crowell retired from the NSA in September 1997.

Commercial Industry Experience January 1998 – Present

Company Position Dates Cylink Corp. (CYLK) Vice President for Product Management January 1998 – November 1998 Cylink Corp. (CYLK) President and CEO November 1998 – February 2003

Board Seats March 2003 – Present

Director Company Tenure Acquisition Chairman Broadware Technologies 2002 – 2007 Acquired by Cisco in 2007 Chairman Activcard (aka ActivIdenity) 2003 – 2006 Director Narus Corp. 2003 – 2010 Acquired by Boeing in 2010 Director Proximex Corp 2007 – 2011 Acquired by ADT Director Ounce Labs 2006 – 2009 Acquired by IBM Director Air Patrol 2006 – 2014 Acquired by Inpixon Director SUNFED (Sun Microsystems subsidiary) 2008 – 2010 Acquired by Oracle Director Fixmo, Ottawa, Canada and Delaware Corp. 2009 – 2014 Acquired by Good Technologies Director SAP GSS subsidiary of SAP 2011 – 2013 Director DRS Finmeccanica Proxy Board 2008 – 2011 Director Six3 Systems 2009 – 2013 Acquired by CACI Chairman Centripetal Cybersecurity 2010 – 2017 Director Seaport Technologies 2019 – present Director Redacted, Inc. 2022 – present

Advisory Boards (selected 2003 – present) Unisys Corp Boeing Corp Hidden Level Technology ManTech International HRL Laboratory Kuprion, Inc. RunSafe Corp. Anametric, Inc. Lookingglass Cyber EdgeTheory, LLC

Education

Year Institution Program 1988 Harvard University Program's Defense Policy Seminar 1985 Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security Affairs 1962-1966 George Washington University Master's Program in Computer Science 1962 Louisiana State University Bachelor of Arts/Political Science

Assignments

Year Position 1997-Retired 1994-1997 Deputy Director of the National Security Agency 1991—1994 Deputy Director of Operations, NSA 1990-1991 Chief of Staff, NSA 1989-1990 Vice President, Intelligence and Space Systems, Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation 1988-1989 Deputy Director for Plans and Resources, NSA 1985-1988 Chief of A Group 1983-1985 Chief of W Group 1981–1983 Assistant Deputy Director of Administration, NSA 1979–1981 Deputy Chief of R2 1975–1979 Chief of Staff, A2 Before 1975 Various positions at NSA Headquarters, CIA, and overseas.

Significant awards Year Award 2002 Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service 1997 National Security Medal 1997 National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal 1997 DIA Director's Award 1997 FBI Distinguished Service Award 1996 Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award 1987 Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award 1985 2nd Exceptional Civilian Service Award 1983 Exceptional Civilian Service Award 1973 Meritorious Civilian Service Award 1979-1988 Elevated through the ranks to the Senior Cryptologic Executive Service

Personal life A native of Louisiana, Crowell currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia with his wife Judy.