Deputy Director of the CIA for Operations

The deputy director of the CIA for operations is a senior United States government official in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who serves as head of the Directorate of Operations. The position was established December 1, 1950 and from January 4, 1951, until March 1, 1973, it was known as Deputy Director of Plans (DDP). When this unit was known as the Directorate of Plans, it at first accounted for about 75% of the CIA budget and about 60% of the personnel within the CIA.^[1]

After staying named the deputy director of plans until 1973, the position was then known as Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) until December 17, 2004 when, under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the position was renamed to Director of the National Clandestine Service (D/NCS). When David Marlowe was chosen to lead the Directorate of Operations by CIA Director William J. Burns in June 2021, media reported his position as being titled Deputy Director of Operations.^[2][3][4]

List of Directors

Name		Start	End	President(s)
	Allen Dulles	January 4, 1951	August 23, 1951		Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
	Frank Wisner	August 23, 1951	January 1, 1959
					Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
	Richard Bissell	January 1, 1959	February 17, 1962
					John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
	Richard Helms	February 17, 1962	April 28, 1965
					Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
	Desmond FitzGerald	June 28, 1965	July 23, 1967
	Thomas Karamessines	July 31, 1967	February 27, 1973
					Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
	William Colby	March 2, 1973	August 24, 1973
	William Nelson	August 24, 1973	May 14, 1976
					Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
	William Wells	May 15, 1976	December 31, 1977
					Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
	John McMahon	January 11, 1978	April 12, 1981
					Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
	Max Hugel	May 11, 1981	July 14, 1981
	John Stein	July 14, 1981	July 1, 1984
	Clair George	July 1, 1984	December 1, 1987
	Richard Stolz	January 4, 1988	December 31, 1990
					George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
	Thomas Twetten	January 1, 1991	December 1993
					Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
	Hugh Price	January 1994	1995
	David Cohen	1995	1997
	Jack G. Downing	1997	July 1999
	James Pavitt[5]	August 1999	June 4, 2004
					George W. Bush (2001–2009)
	Stephen Kappes	June 5, 2004	November 15, 2004
	Jose Rodriguez	November 16, 2004	September 30, 2007
	Michael Sulick	September 30, 2007	July 30, 2010
					Barack Obama (2009–2017)
	John Bennett	July 30, 2010	February 28, 2013
	Gina Haspel Acting	February 28, 2013	May 7, 2013
	Frank Archibald[5]	May 7, 2013	January 29, 2015
	Greg Vogle[6][7][8]	January 29, 2015	August 2017
					Donald Trump (2017–2021)
	Beth Kimber[9][10][11]	December 10, 2018	June 2021
					Joe Biden (2021–2025)
	David Marlowe[2]	June 2021	June 2023
	Tom Sylvester	June 2023	present
					Donald Trump (2025–present)