FBI rounds out cyber leadership with key appointments

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday announced a series of key cybersecurity appointments to round out the bureau’s leadership team.

Wray tapped Amy Hess to serve as the FBI’s executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch.

Hess has a long history with the investigative agency, joining the Kansas City Field Office as a special agent in 1991, where she investigated “investigated violent crimes, gangs, and drug trafficking organizations,” according to the FBI news release announcing the appointments.

Before her latest appointment, she served as the special agent in charge of the field division in Louisville, Ky. {mosads}

The FBI also announced that Matt Gorham will head up the bureau’s Cyber Division as assistant director.

Gorham has decades of experience at the bureau, where he focused on violations related to “violent crime and drug investigations before focusing on counterterrorism matters.” He will be moving from the Counterterrorism Division at the Washington, D.C., Field Office for his new role.

During the course of his career, Gorham served as the director of the National Cyber Joint Investigative Task Force, a cyber center within the FBI’s Cyber Division that “coordinates, integrates, and shares cyber threat information” across multiple agencies in an effort to combat cyber threats.

The bureau also tapped Michael Gavin to serve as the assistant director of the FBI’s IT Applications and Data Division.

Since joining the FBI in 1995, Gavin has gained “broad experience,” including tracking down white-collar crime, violent crime and organized crime matters.

“He was promoted in 2013 to section chief of the Operational Support Section within the Criminal Investigative Division,” according to the press release.

Wray named Marlin Ritzman the assistant director of the Information Management Division.

Ritzman previously served as special agent in charge of the field office in Anchorage, Alaska, and as an infantry officer in the Army before joining the FBI.