Thread by @CIA

Meet Our New Deputy Director:
bit.ly/2w5HzB3

Vaughn Bishop never imagined that one day he would be asked to serve as Deputy Director of CIA. “Then again,” says Bishop, “at no point in my career did I ever cease to be amazed at the opportunities offered at CIA.”

Bishop is thrilled to work with his colleague & friend, Director Haspel, again. Years ago, when DCIA was a senior operations officer, & Bishop a senior analyst, they worked together on difficult missions from opposite sides of the Agency directorate structure.

DCIA Haspel & DDCIA Bishop believe close collaboration & communication across directorates is critical to fulfilling the CIA’s mission. As Bishop likes to say: managing between the white spaces on the org chart, the spaces between the directorates, is a powerful force multiplier.

Born in Indiana to parents who had grown up on farms in the rural Midwest, Bishop attended @NorthwesternU where he earned a bachelor’s & master’s degree in political science & a PhD in political science & African studies.

After doing his dissertation field research in Kano, Nigeria, Bishop was looking forward to a life in academia & began his teaching career at @EmoryUniversity. But a CIA job advertisement caught his eye & changed his fate. He began his 30+ year CIA career in 1981.

Bishop’s first assignment with us was in a small unit where his job was to drive the need for & value of social science methodologies in the art of analysis. “…a much harder sell in 1981 than it is today.”

A major Agency reorg in the early 1980s required Bishop to choose a distinct career path: social science methodology or a regional expertise. He chose Africa.

But his passion for analytic methods, teaching, & exploring new tools of inquiry stayed with him throughout his career.

Bishop’s leadership philosophy is encompassed by a simple saying:
stop, look, listen, learn

It’s how he approaches every new assignment. Bishop believes that the importance of listening cannot be overstated & is a valuable leadership trait & one that is too often underused.

Throughout his career, Bishop held a number of expert-level analyst & senior management positions across a diverse range of regional & functional mission areas. He also led his share of crisis response teams.

As CIA’s new Deputy Director, Vaughn Bishop brings to the office a contagious enthusiasm & love for the work, an uncanny ability to inspire, a 35-cent framed picture of FDR, a photo of golfing with friends in Scotland, & countless pictures of his grandson.

As part of DCIA Haspel’s leadership team, Bishop brings decades of experience & wisdom.

“I’ve always believed CIA is a unique & special place,” says Bishop. “I consider it the privilege of a lifetime to serve as a steward of this great institution.”

bit.ly/2w5HzB3