Susan Gordon’s Journey from CIA Analyst to PDDNI

By The Hon. Susan M. Gordon

The Hon. Susan M. Gordon is a retired career intelligence officer having spent more than 27 years at the CIA, serving as Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and as the fifth Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence (PDDNI), a Congressionally-approved position, before retiring from government service.  In 1998, she designed and drove the formation of In-Q-Tel, a private, non-profit company whose primary purpose is to deliver innovative technology solutions for the agency and the IC.  She currently serves on a number of boards, including the Defense Innovation Board and is a partner at Gordon Ventures.

The Listening Post is a new Cipher Brief column specifically highlighting the experiences of women in the national security space, in both the public and private sectors. This new weekly column is a collection of stories, interviews, and profiles of women who have pioneered change and have inspired others along the way. 

For our first interview, we called on former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Susan M. Gordon, who left her position last August. With nearly forty years of service to the Intelligence Community under her belt, we wanted to talk to her about the highs and lows of her career, how she persisted through tough times and how she was able to succeed along the way thanks to others who knowingly or unknowingly, served as inspiration.  

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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