Wayne McCool is a highly regarded national security and technology leader with more than three decades of experience at the intersection of intelligence, defense, and emerging technology. He has led large, complex organizations through high-risk, high-consequence environments, and is recognized for integrating advanced data analytics and AI into mission-critical workflows.

Wayne most recently served as the CIA’s Associate Deputy Director for Analysis, where he helped lead a multi-year digital transformation of the Agency’s analytic enterprise. In that role, he shifted the culture toward data-driven methods, expanded analysts’ technical fluency, and embedded advanced analytics and AI into everyday workflows to increase speed, rigor, and insight at scale. He oversaw global programs focused on regional analysis, emerging technology, cyber, data science, space, and counternarcotics, while ensuring the quality of intelligence and the professional development of several thousand officers. His leadership earned him multiple senior honors, including the Presidential Rank Award, the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, and the Directorate of Analysis Langer Award.

Earlier in his career, Wayne led major analytic programs on the Near East and counterterrorism through periods of intense conflict and policy crisis, playing a direct role in supporting the President, senior policymakers, Congress, and foreign partners on consequential U.S. policy decisions. As Chief of the Central Arabia Mission and Deputy National Intelligence Manager for Iran, he helped steer U.S. intelligence posture on issues ranging from ISIS and Yemen to Gulf leadership transitions, sanctions, and negotiations. He began his career as a U.S. Navy special operations officer specializing in explosive ordnance disposal, mine warfare, and diving, with deployments to the Middle East, Japan, and Korea.

Wayne now serves as a senior advisor and board-level consultant to companies operating in national security, defense, AI, and data. In these roles, he helps leadership teams rapidly align capabilities with real-world intelligence and operational requirements, emphasizing that successful adoption of emerging technology is as much about culture, tradecraft, and people as it is about tools. He holds a Master of Science from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy, and lives in Leesburg, Virginia.