Director Christopher Wray has named Michael F. Paul as the assistant director of the Operational Technology Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He most recently served as the special agent in charge of the Minneapolis Field Office.
OTD develops and deploys technology-based solutions to enable and enhance the FBI’s intelligence, national security, and law enforcement operations.
Mr. Paul joined the FBI as an intern in 1994 and was hired the next year as a management and program analyst for the Criminal Justice Information Services Division. He was selected to be a special agent in 1999 and reported to the Detroit Field Office. He worked different types of cases, including counterterrorism, and served on Detroit’s SWAT and other response teams.
In 2005, Mr. Paul was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters and was detailed to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. He coordinated investigations and intelligence-sharing about sensitive international weapons of mass destruction threats. In 2006 he served as a senior detailee and unit chief under the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, overseeing FBI personnel detailed to the CIA, National Counterterrorism Threat Center, and the National Security Agency.
Mr. Paul was named the chief of the WMDD’s executive staff in 2008. In 2009, he was selected as a Joint Terrorism Task Force field supervisor for the Cleveland Field Office. In 2013, he was named an assistant special agent in charge in the Norfolk Field Office in Virginia, where he led counterintelligence, counterterrorism, intelligence, and crisis management programs.
In 2015, Mr. Paul was promoted to chief of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section in the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters. In 2018, Mr. Paul transferred within the division to serve as chief of the Technology and Data Innovation Section.
In 2020, Mr. Paul was promoted to special agent in charge of the Minneapolis Field Office.
Mr. Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He holds advanced degrees from West Virginia University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
