Michael Hayden (general)

Michael Vincent Hayden (born March 17, 1945) is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

He also serves as a professor at the George Mason University – Schar School of Policy and Government.

Hayden currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative.

Michael Vincent Hayden was born on March 17, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an Irish-American couple, Sadie (Murray) and Harry V. Hayden Jr., who worked as a welder for a Pennsylvania manufacturing company.

He has a sister, Debby, and a brother, Harry.

Hayden attended St. Peter's Elementary School where, in 7th and 8th grade he played quarterback on the school football team then being coached by the late Dan Rooney, the son of the founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and former chairman of the team.

Hayden graduated from North Catholic High School.

One of his first jobs was as an equipment manager for the Steelers.

He went on to Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1967 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He then attended graduate school at Duquesne for a master's degree in modern American history.

Hayden entered active military service in 1969.

Hayden is married to the former Jeanine Carrier.

They have a daughter Margaret and two sons, Michael and Liam.

He continues to be an avid fan of the hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, since the 1990s traveling with his wife and family to at least three or four games a year.

Hayden was commissioned through Duquesne University's Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

From 1996 to 1997, Hayden served as commander of the AIA, an agency of 16,000 charged with defending and exploiting the "information domain".

He was Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) from 1999 to 2005.

During his tenure as director, he initiated and oversaw the NSA surveillance of technological communications between persons in the United States and foreign citizens who allegedly had ties to terrorist groups, which resulted in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.

Hayden served as the director of the National Security Agency and chief of the Central Security Service at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, from March 1999 to April 2005.

As the director of NSA and chief of CSS, he was responsible for a combat support agency of the Department of Defense with military and civilian personnel stationed worldwide.

Hayden came to the NSA at a time of great trouble in the agency.

Internal government analysis indicated it suffered from a lack of quality management and an outdated IT infrastructure.

In fact soon after he came on board, a huge part of the NSA network system crashed and was down for several days.

On April 21, 2005, then Lt. Gen Hayden, was confirmed by the United States Senate as the first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and awarded his fourth star-making him "the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the armed forces".

He served in this position under DNI John Negroponte until May 26, 2006.

On May 8, 2006, Hayden was nominated for the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency following the resignation of Porter J. Goss, and on 23 May the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12–3 to send the nomination to the Senate floor.

His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on 26 May by a vote of 78–15.

On May 30, 2006, and again the following day at the CIA lobby with President George W. Bush in attendance, Hayden was sworn in as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

On July 1, 2008, Hayden retired from the Air Force after over 41 years of service, while continuing to serve as Director of the CIA until February 12, 2009.

He received an honorary doctorate from The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., in 2009.

He served for a number of years as a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy, but left at the end of 2022.

He also serves on the board of directors for the Atlantic Council, and is a distinguished visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government.

He is also a founder of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

Hayden is currently on the advisory board of NewsGuard.

In November 2018, Hayden was hospitalized after suffering a stroke; he suffers from aphasia as a result.

Hayden has served as commander of the Air Intelligence Agency and director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, both headquartered at Lackland Air Force Base.

He also has served in senior staff positions in the Pentagon; Headquarters U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany; the National Security Council, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Embassy in the then-People's Republic of Bulgaria.

Prior to becoming Director of the National Security Agency, the general served as deputy chief of staff for United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, Yongsan Garrison.

He has also worked in intelligence in Guam.

In 2020, a federal court ruled that the NSA program was illegal and possibly unconstitutional.