Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet announced with regret today that Dr. Ruth David, CIA's Deputy Director for Science & Technology (DDS&T), will be departing the CIA in September to become President and CEO of ANSER, a not-for-profit public service research institute.

Describing Dr. David as an "outstanding" senior manager, Mr. Tenet said her service to the country during a three-year tenure as DDS&T "has been nothing short of extraordinary."

"I am enormously grateful to her for the wise counsel she has given to me, and for the state-of-the-art support she and her team have given our intelligence collectors and analysts", he said. "She will be greatly missed by all of us."

He added: "I would very much prefer that she stay, but I also understand why she wants to seize this wonderful career opportunity at this moment in her life."

Dr. David, until recently Director of Advanced Information Technologies, Sandia National Laboratories, had served on loan under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act as CIA's DDS&T since September 1995.

"Dr. David came to the Agency at a time when we needed a leader who could guide the DS&T through major transformations geopolitical transformations as well as technological transformations that are profoundly affecting how we conduct our mission," the DCI said.

"She made it her mission to develop and deliver the capabilities our collectors and analysts need to do their critical work in this new and fast-changing environment to give them not just what they need today, or will need tomorrow, but what they need to be effective well into the next century."

A successor to Dr. David has not yet been appointed. Joanne Isham, the CIA's Associate Deputy Director for Science & Technology, will serve as Acting Director after Dr. David's departure in September and until a new DDS&T is named.