Ambassador Henry A. Crumpton

Henry “Hank” A. Crumpton is a Distinguished Fellow at the EastWest Institute. He also advises companies on global risk and opportunity.

With the rank of Ambassador-at-Large, he served as the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US Department of State from August 2005 until February 2007. Working directly for the Secretary of State, he developed, coordinated, and implemented US counterterrorism policy in Washington DC and abroad.

Ambassador Crumpton joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1981 as a Clandestine Service operations officer. For most of his 24 year career he operated in the foreign field, including assignments as Chief of Station. In Washington, he held senior management positions, including an assignment to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as Deputy Chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section, 1998-1999. Ambassador Crumpton was Deputy Chief (Operations) of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, 1999-2001. He led the CIA’s Afghanistan campaign, 2001-2002. Some of his achievements have been portrayed in the best-selling books Bush at War, American Soldier, First In, Jawbreaker, and At the Center of the Storm. He served as Chief of the CIA’s National Resources Division, 2003-2005.

He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of New Mexico and a Masters in International Public Policy, with honors, from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is a contributing author to Transforming U.S. Intelligence (2005). He serves as an advisory board member to the Department of Homeland Security’s Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a national consortium of universities. He also is a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Transnational Threats Steering Committee.

Ambassador Crumpton is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Intelligence Commendation Medal; the George H.W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Sherman Kent Award, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the literature of intelligence; the Donovan Award; and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s highest award for achievement.