Michael Leiter

Michael Leiter


Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
In office November 10, 2007 – July 8, 2011 Acting: November 10, 2007 – June 12, 2008
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama
Preceded by	John Redd
Succeeded by	Matthew Olsen
Personal details
Born	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University Harvard University

Michael E. Leiter was the Director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), having served in the Bush Administration and been retained in the Obama Administration. A statement released by the White House announced his resignation, effective July 8, 2011. His successor, Matthew G. Olsen, was sworn in on August 16, 2011.

Leiter grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, where he attended Dwight-Englewood School, from which he graduated in 1987. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1991. From 1991 until 1997, he served as a Naval Flight Officer and crewmember aboard EA-6B Prowlers in the U.S. Navy, participating in U.S., NATO, and UN operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. He then earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2000 and was the 113th President of the Harvard Law Review. Leiter also served as a Harvard Law School human rights fellow with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

After law school, Leiter served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.