Sean M. Joyce

Joyce is a 2013 recipient of the Director of National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, the DIA’s Director’s Award, the FBI Meritorious Medal, Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service and the 2011 Presidential Rank Award, among other honors.

Joyce was appointed the 14th Deputy Director for the FBI in September 2011. In this position Joyce had direct oversight of the FBI's 36,000 employees and its $8 billion annual budget. With more than 26 years of service in the FBI, Joyce brought a wide range of operational and leadership experience. He was an integral part of transforming the FBI into an intelligence-driven organization. In addition, he spearheaded several strategic initiatives including ‘next generation cyber,’ which was a cross-organizational initiative to maintain the FBI’s world leadership in law enforcement and domestic intelligence. He also established a framework to operate and evaluate the FBI’s 56 domestic field offices.

In April 2010, Joyce was appointed executive assistant director (EAD) of the FBI’s National Security Branch (NSB), composed of the Counterterrorism Division, Counterintelligence Division, Directorate of Intelligence, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate.

In 2009, Joyce was appointed assistant director of the FBI’s International Operations Division. As assistant director, he was responsible for employees in 75 foreign and domestic locations in support of the FBI’s international mission to defeat national security and criminal threats by building a global network of trusted partners and strengthening the FBI’s international capabilities.

Joyce was designated legal attaché to Prague in August 2005, and in 2007, received an award for investigative excellence for his work there. In 2007, he was assigned to the Washington Field Office as an assistant special agent in charge. The following year he was named section chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s International Terrorism Operations Section, with responsibility for international terrorism matters within the United States.

In 1998, Joyce returned to the Dallas Field Office and became a special agent and SWAT team leader. He earned the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 2004 for his work on a Dallas Division counterterrorism squad. He received the same award again a year later for his work on another counterterrorism matter.

A Brockton, Massachusetts native, Joyce earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Computer Science from Boston College followed by an MBA from the Tuck School of Business of Dartmouth College. Joyce worked as an Analyst at Raytheon and an Experienced Senior at Arthur Andersen prior to joining the FBI in 1987.

Joyce began his career as an FBI special agent in 1987. Following the completion of training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, he was assigned to the Dallas Division where he investigated Violent Crimes. He later investigated Colombian narcotics matters in the Miami Division and in 1994, Joyce was selected as a member of the Bureau’s Hostage Rescue Team.

Sean M. Joyce (born 1961) was the 14th Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.