Nationality American Name Harry Brandon | Other names Skip Brandon | |
Alma mater University of New MexicoUniversity of TexasNational War College Occupation COO at Smith Brandon International, Inc.Deputy Assistant Director of National Security and Counterterrorism at the FBI | ||
Harry B. "Skip" Brandon founded Smith Brandon International, Inc. with Gene M. Smith in 1996. Smith Brandon International is a boutique corporate investigations and risk consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. Brandon is currently COO of the company. He is also a former deputy assistant director of national security and counterterrorism for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He retired from the FBI in 1993 after 23 years.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Brandon is a native of Kansas. He graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1964 with a B.A. in History. Following graduation, Brandon entered the United States Navy, where he served as a Commissioned Officer for six years, including a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Navy lieutenant.
In 1970 Brandon earned a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Texas at Austin.
With the FBI
Brandon was appointed Special Agent of the FBI in 1970, assigned first to Norfolk, Virginia and then to Hartford, Connecticut. In 1975 he was transferred to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he specialized in Cuban espionage.
In 1977 Brandon returned to Washington, D.C. to serve in the Intelligence Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. After five years there, he moved to the Madison, Wisconsin Resident Agency to serve as Supervisory Special Agent until 1984.
Following a year at the National War College, he returned to Puerto Rico as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the San Juan Division and later became the Special Agent in Charge. In 1990, Brandon was reassigned to FBI Headquarters as Deputy Assistant Director of the Intelligence Division, a role he would keep until leaving the Bureau in 1993.
In his final assignment with the FBI, Brandon spent time working on projects in Poland and Russia and made frequent trips to Asia.
Post-FBI
In 1996 Brandon founded Smith Brandon International with former CIA agent Gene M. Smith. The firm specializes in business intelligence, risk assessment and litigation support. Brandon is currently COO of the company.
In 1996, on one of his first assignments, Brandon traveled to Mindanao, an island of the Philippines, to negotiate a deal for his client, a North American mining company, with a rebel guerrilla group. The client had come into conflict with the group, threatening its future operations. Brandon's meetings with the rebels were successful at securing his client's interests; the story, involving face-to-face descriptions of his meetings with the rebels armed with machine guns in remote parts of the jungle, was picked up by various news sources.
Personal life
Brandon is fluent in Spanish.
He has appeared on various television and radio news programs, such as ABC News and NPR, to discuss counterterrorism and has contributed to various industry periodicals, such as the Harvard Business Review and The Economist.