Catherine Aucella

(Ret) Executive Director

National Security Agency (NSA)

Catherine Aucella served at the National Security Agency for 41 years, culminating her career as the NSA’s Executive Director, the agency’s second-most-senior civilian. In this role, she partnered with the NSA’s Director and Deputy Director to provide leadership across the NSA global enterprise and to represent NSA at a wide variety of external engagements spanning the Intelligence Community, Congressional committees, industry, academia, and professional groups. Ms. Aucella directed strategic approaches and corporate responses to the nation’s most complex cryptologic initiatives and requirements.

Ms. Aucella began her career at NSA as a linguist and an intelligence analyst. She subsequently served in a variety of operational and corporate leadership positions. Career highlights include leading NSA’s Office of Counterterrorism in a post-9/11 environment, serving as Senior Liaison and Chief of NSA's integrated workforce at the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), serving as NSA’s Chief Compliance Officer, directing NSA’s 10,000+ analytic cadre, and leading two major Directorates at NSA as Deputy Director for Capabilities and Director of Workforce Support Activities. In this latter role, Ms. Aucella completely reengineered NSA’s hiring processes, reducing hiring timelines by 30%. She led the Agency through the COVID pandemic, securing vaccines and workforce safety mitigations that resulted in extremely low workplace transmission rates.

Common hallmarks across all of Ms. Aucella’s leadership roles include her penchant for innovation and process improvement; her reliance on technology, data science, and, later, artificial intelligence solutions to improve workflows and master complexity; customer-centered approaches to organizational outcomes; and a deep respect and care for the people she served as a leader. She is passionate about the benefits of creating inclusive work environments that leverage the diverse thoughts and experiences of a multifaceted workforce. She is a seasoned public speaker and communicator.

Ms. Aucella received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from George Washington University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Maryland Global Campus. She also participated in a range of leadership programs, including the National Defense University’s CAPSTONE General Flag and Officer Course, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management’s Excel Program, and the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership at the Peak. She has been honored with several significant awards, including being a two-time recipient of the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award and receiving the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from both the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense.

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