Intelligence Speakers Bureau: David G. Major

David G. Major

Leading Authority and Expert on Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism

Retired Senior FBI Executive

Former Director, Intelligence and Counterintelligence Programs at the National Security Council during the Reagan Administration

Founder and President, Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre)

Board Member, International Spy Museum

Board Member, Association For Intelligence Officers (AFIO)

President, David G. Major Associates, Inc.

30+ year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Practitioner and Expert

Consultant to movie and documentary producers

David Major has made a life-long commitment to the practice and study of counterintelligence and its subset, counterterrorism, making him one of the nation's top experts on the subject. His views and advice are sought after by the government, private companies and national and international media. Major has a passion for helping people gain a greater understanding of the importance of counterintelligence and counterterrorism, and has been giving speeches and training people since the 1970's. He is known as a dynamic, enthusiastic and incredibly interesting speaker who holds the audience captivated on any topic. He is able to speak on unlimited number of different topics, many which are taken directly from segments in the highly-rated courses his training company provides.

Major served in the FBI from a street agent to a senior official and worked foreign counterintelligence his entire career. He has been involved in various ways in nearly all major espionage case of the past 30 years and has recruited, run and handled agents, double agents and defectors as well as caught spies. Major also used his counterintelligence skills to work against radical groups like the Black Panthers, KKK and others.

Major's skills and abilities propelled him to being named by the FBI to being the first FBI official to be assigned to the National Security Council. He served as the Director, Intelligence and Counterintelligence Programs in 1985 and 1986, and briefed and advised President Reagan on counterintelligence matters. He was also instrumental in an administration effort to decrease the number of Soviet intelligence officers in the US, which were overwhelming the FBI's resources. As a result, over 80 Soviet KGB and GRU officers were expelled from the United States.

Upon retiring from the FBI, Major founded the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies to provide high-quality counterintelligence, counterterrorism and security training for the government and corporate sector. The Centre has trained nearly 10,000 people in counterintelligence, intelligence, counterterrorism and security topics.

Major is a host of an internal government TV series with over 154 episodes called CI-TV which helps educate government personnel on lessons learned from espionage and terrorism cases. As an outreach program for the public, he helped develop the concepts of SpyDrive^® and SpyCruise^® as a way of teaching people about the reality of espionage and the importance of vigilance. Both of these products received world-wide media coverage and attention.

David Major and actor Ron Silver In February 2001, the arrest of senior FBI agent Robert Hanssen stunned the nation, and no more so than David Major. Major had known Hanssen for 20 years as a coworker and was his supervisor at one point. An expert knowledge of counterintelligence combined with being driven to understand Hanssen and his actions has made Major truly the one of the country's top experts on the case. He has developed an extensive and comprehensive presentation to show the man, his methods, his damage and lessons learned. When CBS-TV had director/producer Lawrence Schiller and author Norman Mailer create a movie about Robert Hanssen, they hired Major and his company to be the technical advisors. Major briefed Schiller and Mailer on the case and showed them where Hanssen lived, worked and operated as a spy. He also briefed and advised actors William Hurt, Ron Silver and Wayne Knight on the case and the characters they would be playing in the movie. Schiller based the character Ron Silver played, as Hanssen's boss, on David Major.

Major's expertise in the areas of counterintelligence and intelligence led him to be named to the select group of advisory board members of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Major is a graduate of Syracuse University and served as a US Army Captain in the Chemical Corps and then the Armor Branch from 1966 to 1968.

Travels from Washington, DC area

Uses multimedia PowerPoint presentations

Detailed Biography

David Major has made a 40-year commitment to the practice of counterintelligence, having served in top leadership roles at the FBI in counterintelligence as a Supervisory Special Agent, as well as on the National Security Council as the Director of Counterintelligence, Intelligence and Security Programs. Major was the first FBI official ever to be appointed to the NSC.

During his employment at the FBI from 1970 to 1993, Major became a nationally recognized counterintelligence and security/countermeasures technical expert, strategic planner, practitioner, advocate and spokesman for national counterintelligence and security countermeasures programs. During his time with the NSC from 1985 to 1987, he was involved in every aspect of these disciplines, with extensive operational experience at the highest level of government.

Major handled many joint Department of Defense and FBI double agents in support of DoD Special Planning Activities. He handled defectors and the recruitment of foreign intelligence officers and agents. Major investigated, supervised and was directly or indirectly involved in most of the 100 public espionage cases in the last 25 years.

While at the NSC, Major was responsible for formulating the policies and programs which led to the first and only mass expulsion of Soviet intelligence officers (80 KGB and GRU) from the United States in October 1986. The successful strategic counterintelligence program is recounted in "Operation FAMISH: The Integration of Counterintelligence into the National Decision-making Process" (Defense Intelligence Journal, Spring 1995).

Following his work at the NSC, Major returned to the FBI where he was in charge of the section within the Intelligence Division of FBI Headquarters responsible for managing all intelligence and counterintelligence strategic and operational analysis, policy and plans formulation, budget formulation, resource management, automated data processing, and counterintelligence training of FBI, DoD and counterintelligence community personnel.

To ensure that the counterintelligence programs were integrated into the Executive Agencies' decision-making process, Major served as the architect for the Counterintelligence Operations Board in 1989 (now known as the National Counterintelligence Operations Board). This interagency board is responsible for all strategic counterintelligence operational planning and threat assessments for the Intelligence Community. Its membership included the Directors for Counterintelligence from the DoD/OSD, NCS, FCA, AFOSI, Chief of the CIA/CIC, and the FBI.

From 1988 until his retirement in 1993, Major was the FBI's principal representative in the national intelligence policy formulation process. As such, he was the principal FBI drafter for the National Security Review (NSR) 18 and National Security Directive (NSD) 47. Signed by President Bush in October 1990, NSD 47 set forth the nation's counterintelligence and security countermeasures policy and plans to address the intelligence threat in the 1990s. Major also worked as the FBI's representative to the NSD 47 Working Group to ensure the full implementation of this executive directive.

Major was the principal architect of the National Security Threat List (approved by the Attorney General in December 1991) to meet the ever-changing challenges of the foreign intelligence threat in the 1990s. The National Security Threat List strategy became the primary document which directly governs all DoD counterintelligence programs.

Major's deep and persistent commitment to training future counterintelligence professional leaders from the DoD, FBI and CIA to think strategically about counterintelligence led him to formulate a new counterintelligence community course, "Strategic Approaches to Counterintelligence." This course was the first step in the development of a diverse gamut of courses Major later designed and currently conducts for the Intelligence Community.

As President of David G. Major Associates, Inc. parent company of The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Major has committed himself to increasing the number of personnel who have a broad and in-depth understanding of the disciplines of counterintelligence and its subset, counterterrorism, within the Intelligence and National Security Communities, various federal agencies, Congress, media, academic, corporate sector, and among the public. Through the CI Centre, Major has worked vigorously to conduct research, analysis, training and direct strategic counterintelligence planning to assist in expanding awareness of key strategic concepts.

Major served as an adjunct professor for the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC where he designed and taught from 1992 to 2000 the graduate-level course "Counterintelligence in a Democratic Society". He also lectured at the "Intelligence and Policy" and "Intelligence and Protective Security in the Post-Cold War Era" courses at the Institute.

Major is the host of CI-TV, an internal government counterintelligence TV series with over 131 episodes. He has been extensively interviewed by print, radio and TV media from all over the world on counterintelligence issues, cases (such as the Hanssen case) and events. He serves as a consultant and advisor to producers of documentaries, books and movies dealing with spies and espionage. Major is on the Board of Advisors of the International Spy Museum which opened in Washington, DC in 2002.

Major is a graduate of Syracuse University and served as a US Army Captain in the Chemical Corps and then the Armor Branch from 1966 to 1968.

David Major Links

Photos: Major at White House

Photos: Gordievsky meeting with the President

Photos: Color and b&w photo of Major

CBS 60 Minutes II interview with Major re Hanssen case

Video: Major talks about how Hanssen viewed the Soviets.

CBS 60 Minutes II interview with major re Daniel King case

Interview on PBS' "Red Files: Secret Files of the KGB." (Look under 'Deep Background, Interviews')

CNN interview with Major regarding SpyDrive

London Times interview with Major re SpyDrive

ABC interview with Major re SpyDrive

Sample Feedback:

"A living legend who lived up to his well-deserved reputation as an expert counterintelligence professional."

"Phenomenal. Dave did a thorough job and was extremely interesting. One of the best lecturers I've ever heard."

"Very enlightening and entertaining. You know you are dealing with the expert when David talks."

"David Major is one heck of an instructor. I couldn't imagine that there are too many people who know the counterintelligence business better than he does. I'm glad he is on our side!"

"Major is truly the 'Guru of CI'."

More Feedback

Sample Topics:

Robert Hanssen Case

Counterintelligence Tools and the War on Terror

Israeli Intelligence

The Secret History of History

Victims in the Shadows: The Unseen Consequences of Espionage

Operation FAREWELL to FAMISH: Pro-active Approaches to National CI Policy

The Enigma of CI: Applying CI Lessons and Protecting Civil Liberties

Life as a FBI Counterintelligence Agent: Personal Reflections on Spy Cases