Board of Advisors

Charles S. Phalen is currently the principal and independent consultant at C S Phalen & Associates, LLC. He is an accomplished senior security executive with five decades of security experience including more than sixteen years leading security programs at four federal agencies and a major defense company during periods of unprecedented growth, development, and challenge. Key areas of experience include the full range of security operations, government and industry partnerships, national and international crises, continuity of operations, business process reengineering, organizational development, P&L, and mergers.

Mr. Phalen served as the first director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) from June 2019 through March 2020. Mr. Phalen and his leadership team successfully merged the Office of Personnel Management’s background investigation program with DOD’s Defense Security Service. The merged agency includes approximately 12,000 federal and contract personnel executing the government-wide personnel vetting program and the critical technology protection mission.

Mr. Phalen was the Director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, an organizational element of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, from October 2016 to September 2019 (overlapping from June—September 2019 with the Acting Director/DCSA assignment). In this role, he led a government-wide organization providing investigations for national security, suitability, and credentialing determinations for more than 100 federal agencies.

From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Phalen was Vice President of Corporate Security for Northrop Grumman Corporation and led the global security organization responsible for overseeing the security policies, procedures and processes that protect company employees, information, assets, and property worldwide.

Prior to 2011, Mr. Phalen spent 30 years in the federal service. His most recent positions during that period include: Director of Security for the Central Intelligence Agency; Assistant Director, Security Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chief, Protective Programs Group, CIA Office of Security; Executive Officer, CIA Office of Security; Center Chief, CIA Office of Facilities and Security Services; and Chief, Facilities and Information Security Division, National Reconnaissance Office. Previously, he worked in and managed security activities involving investigations, operations support, risk analysis, and facility and asset protection, in the United States and abroad.

Mr. Phalen has a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and criminology from the University of Maryland. He is active in a number of external security organizations and forums.