William P. Crowell

William P. Crowell
14th Deputy Director of the National Security Agency
In office 2 February 1994 – 12 September 1997
Preceded by	Robert L. Prestel
Succeeded by	Barbara A. McNamara
Personal details
Born	William Perry Crowell, Jr. (1940-11-26) November 26, 1940 Louisiana, U.S.
Spouse	Judy
Children	two
Residence(s)	Leesburg, Virginia
Profession	independent consultant in information technology, security and intelligence systems, intelligence official

William Perry Crowell (born November 26, 1940) is the former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency.

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

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 Interests and Activities

Crowell’s background is somewhat eclectic. During his early days in Louisiana he loved to fish and got to know the rivers and swamps of the bayou country with his grandfather and uncle. He earned his way through college working for an engineering firm as a surveyor in the Atchafalaya Swamp, and a survey boat driver on the Mississippi River. During his college years he did two week-long cross country hikes and fly fishing trips in the North Carolina mountains and streams, scuba diving in the Rainbow River in Florida, and was the chef for many of the fraternity offsite gatherings. Because of his earlier days as President of Key Club International, he also served as freshman, sophomore and junior class leader at LSU and was often called upon to give speeches to local service organizations.

After moving to the Washington DC area, his interests continued to broaden. Bill became a carpenter and built much of the furniture in his home, an accomplished photographer who built his own darkroom, and an artist who entered paintings, pottery and sculptures in a number of the local art shows.

After training in the art of pottery under teachers from the famed Penland School of Craft, pottery became a serious passion. Crowell opened his own studio where he taught glaze chemistry, wheel thrown pottery on kick wheels he built, and raku firing in a wood-fired kiln he also crafted.

Eventually, the pressures of his job in the Intelligence Community took priority forcing Bill to give up these many passions and focus most of his time and energy on his national security interests.

Bill and his wife Judy turned to the great outdoors for recreation, buying their first touring motorcycles in the mid 70’s and spending their vacations touring the Eastern United States. They traveled together, each on their own motorcycle, to virtually every state east of the Mississippi River, staying in Park Lodges or Bed and Breakfasts, fly fishing the local rivers, and sampling the cuisine of all the best restaurants in each of the towns and cities they visited. After 45 years of exploring the country, COVID unfortunately made travel an unreasonable risk.

Bill and Judy had learned to ski in their early days together and managed to make that a passion as well, traveling to ski resorts in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. After tackling the Austrian and Swiss Alps they decided to ski the slopes of Colorado at Aspen, Snowmass, and Steamboat Springs for the rest of their years of skiing.

After moving to California, the couple visited virtually every National Park /in the west as their travels took them to all eleven states/ west of the Rockies and to Canada. Their 10 to 18 day tours carried them through extremes of climate and terrain, ranging from the 120+ degree deserts of Nevada and California to the snow-covered mountains of Montana, Canada and Oregon. When they returned to the East Coast they continued their motorcycling adventures with more travels down the Blue Ridge Parkway annually.

Crowell’s adventuresome inclinations did not end with motorcycling or skiing. Of his approach to national security interests, he often said, “I like to kick the tires and experience what the people in the field are experiencing.” His “tire kicking” included aircraft carrier landings, at-sea transfers to submarines, visits to conflict zones, helicopter trips to very remote and sometimes ancient places, and most exciting of all: a six-hour flight in the U2 spy plane at altitudes above 70,000 feet with substantial time at the yoke.