Career Path from Dubuque Police Officer to The FBI

Michael Sullivan serves as the Assistant Director of the Office of Private Sector within the FBI Intelligence Branch. Appointed to this position in April 2018, Mr. Sullivan oversees efforts to strengthen the FBI’s partnerships with the U.S. private sector and academia, which are vital to the nation’s national and economic security.

Mr. Sullivan has a wealth of experience gained in a professional career that has spanned more than 40 years in law enforcement and private sector security. From 2003 until 2018, Mr. Sullivan was employed by Rockwell Collins, Inc., and eventually rose to the position of Director of Global Security, where he managed and led a team of 142 employees located at more than 100 facilities in 27 countries with 24/7 operations.

At Rockwell Collins, Mr. Sullivan’s security team won four James S. Cogswell Awards from the National Industrial Security Program.

From 1985 to 2003, Mr. Sullivan served as a police officer for the Dubuque Police Department in Iowa where he became Lieutenant and then Captain of Criminal Investigations. He led a team of police detectives and supervisors investigating more than 600 criminal cases per year.

With his extensive background in law enforcement and corporate security, Mr. Sullivan has successfully navigated both the public and private sectors. In his former position, Mr. Sullivan was an active participant in the public-private partnership known as the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC). He understands the importance of this partnership and will continue to engage with DSAC as well as other public-private partnerships on behalf of the FBI.

Additionally, Mr. Sullivan was one of the charter members and co-chair of the Safeguard Iowa Partnership, a public-private partnership that identifies and marshals resources to effectively respond to large-scale crises that impact the state of Iowa.

Mr. Sullivan attended the FBI National Academy in 1999 and earned an Executive Masters of Business Administration from the University of Iowa in 2009.

Mr. Sullivan and his wife reside in the Washington, D.C. metro area.