Dick Lake

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Dick Lake is currently the Vice President, Security Services (Chief Security Officer) for Booz Allen Hamilton. As the Chief Security Officer, Dick leads a team of security services experts who ensure the security and safety of Booz Allen’s employees and resources. He previously served as the Director, Global Security (Chief Security Officer) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from September 2013 to November 2017.

Prior to joining the private sector in 2013, Dick served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence, foreign area, and infantry officer for more than 36 years before retiring as a Major General. As a general officer, he led one of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s elements as the Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Marine Corps for four years. Dick subsequently served for four years with the Central Intelligence Agency as one of the deputy directors of the National Clandestine Service (now Directorate of Operations).

Earlier in his career, he served in a variety of command and staff positions in the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Africa including humanitarian, crisis, contingency, and combat operations.

During his military service, he received a variety of U.S. and foreign military decorations to include the Secretary of the Navy’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Director of National Intelligence’s National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Clandestine Service’s Donovan Award, and the Defense Intelligence Director’s Award.

Dick earned a B.A. in modern languages from The Citadel and a M.A. in management from Central Michigan University. He’s also an honor graduate of the Defense Intelligence College (now the National Intelligence University) where he earned a MS. in strategic intelligence and was awarded an honorary doctorate in strategic intelligence from the same institution.