Press Release

FBI Recognizes Presidential Rank Award Recipients

In a ceremony today at FBI Headquarters, Director Robert S. Mueller, III and Assistant Director John Raucci of the Human Resources Division recognized the recipients of the 2008 Presidential Rank Awards. These awards, which are given to a very select group of career civil service employees each year and are conferred by the President of the United States, are divided into two categories: the Distinguished Executive Rank Award, given for extraordinary results, and the Meritorious Executive Rank Award, given for sustained accomplishment.

“The integrity, strength, leadership, and sustained performance of these eleven employees have earned them one of the most prestigious honors in government,” said Director Mueller. “Receiving the Presidential Rank Award is an honor not only for these individuals, but for the FBI as a whole, and we are deeply proud of each of them.”

The Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award was given to:

• Richard L. Haley II, Assistant Director of the Finance Division and Chief Financial Officer

The Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award was given to:

• Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office
• Anthony M. Bladen, Assistant Director of the Resource Planning Office
• Andrew J. Castor, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division for the Washington Field Office
• Daniel Lee Cloyd, Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division
• Weysan Dun, Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office
• Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office
• Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Division
• Patrick W. Kelley, Assistant Director for the Office of Integrity and Compliance
• Jerome Pender, Deputy Assistant Director of the Operations Branch for the Criminal Justice Information Services Division
• Gail Scavongelli, Section Chief for the Information Technology Operations Division  

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Recipients of the Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award:  

Richard L. Haley, II is the Assistant Director of the Finance Division and Chief Financial Officer for the FBI. He was instrumental in making the FBI’s budget process smarter, stronger, and more strategic. Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Haley served as the Deputy Budget Officer at the Justice Management Division, Department of Justice. Mr. Haley has also served at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Commerce, and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he started his civil service career as a Presidential Management Intern. Before entering the civil service, Mr. Haley served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army.

Recipients of the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award:

Warren T. Bamford currently serves as the Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office. He has distinguished himself in a variety of national programs and initiatives, and his achievements have significantly advanced the United States’ and the FBI's national priorities of protecting this country from terrorist, hostile foreign intelligence, and criminal threats. His notable successes span his career and include significant investigations involving violent criminal gangs in Hartford, Connecticut and Prince George’s County, Maryland; multimillion-dollar frauds and embezzlements in Washington, D.C.; and counterterrorism matters as the Special Agent in Charge of the Counterterrorism Division in Los Angeles. In addition, he has twice served with the Critical Incident Response Group—first as an operator with the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team and then as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, where he oversaw the FBI’s Crisis Management, Negotiation, and Rapid Deployment Programs. During this assignment, he also served as the FBI On-Scene Commander in Afghanistan.

Anthony M. Bladen, currently the Assistant Director of the Resource Planning Office, has served the FBI with distinction for over a quarter-century. Mr. Bladen enjoys the honor of being the first professional support employee to rise from a file clerk to an Assistant Director in the 100-year history of the FBI. This achievement is not only a testament to Mr. Bladen’s personal sacrifice, determination, and exceptional talent, but also the FBI’s capacity to identify, recognize, and encourage leadership and vision.

Andrew J. Castor is currently the Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Division for the Washington Field Office. During the past five years of his 19-year career, Mr. Castor has served as Assistant Special Agent in Charge in the San Antonio Field Office, Section Chief in the Finance Division, and Deputy Assistant Director of the Human Resources Division. As Deputy Assistant Director of the Human Resources Branch, Mr. Castor oversaw a number of crucial initiatives, from improving human resources-related technology to establishing career paths for special agents to implementing innovative recruiting techniques to bring talented professionals on board.

Daniel Lee Cloyd is currently the Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division. For more than 23 years, Mr. Cloyd has served the FBI and Department of Justice in numerous leadership positions, including assignments as a Section Chief in the Counterintelligence Division, Special Agent in Charge of the Norfolk Field Office, Deputy Assistant Director of the Inspection Division, and Deputy Assistant Director for Operations and Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division, where he has served since June 2006.

Weysan Dun is currently the Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office. Mr. Dun is the former Special Agent in Charge of the Springfield Field Office and an Inspector at FBI Headquarters. He has dedicated himself to the highest principles of public service for more than 30 years. Mr. Dun has a reputation for tackling difficult issues and problems where others have been less successful. As Special Agent in Charge of the Springfield Office, Mr. Dun focused resources on rooting out public corruption in the Metro East St. Louis area by instituting the Metro East Public Corruption Task Force. The highly publicized and successful results of the task force had a tremendous community impact because numerous prior attempts to address corruption in Metro East St. Louis failed. Public confidence in the government’s ability to effectively address systemic corruption has been restored.

Robert D. Grant is the Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office. During his three years in this position, he has pushed Chicago’s information technology forward and helped create a comprehensive leadership development program for new supervisors. He helped reorganize Chicago’s Field Intelligence Group, improving our understanding of the criminal and terrorist threats in the Chicago community. He designed, staffed, and trained a squad that focuses on human intelligence in the Chicago area. Mr. Grant and his team led several highly successful public corruption investigations, including those of former governor George Ryan and numerous city officials. They dismantled several violent street gangs and organized crime enterprises; helped disrupt a terrorist plot targeting a Chicago shopping mall; and arrested and prosecuted two Iraqi intelligence officers on counterintelligence charges.

Salvador Hernandez is the Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Division, overseeing more than 1,350 people in 12 different locations. Mr. Hernandez is not only focused on the day-to-day workings of the Bureau, but has also helped execute the long-term strategy necessary to take the Bureau well into the future. While serve as Legal Attaché in Mexico City, he created a counterterrorism working group comprised of members from the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Customs, Immigration, and Naturalization Service, and the military—the first international working group of its kind. During his tenure as Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division, he led the expansion of the public corruption program to include foreign corrupt practices. He strengthened the FBI’s work in corporate fraud and mortgage fraud and helped implement state-of-the-art technology in the Crimes Against Children and Fugitive programs.

Patrick W. Kelley is the FBI’s first Assistant Director for the Office of Integrity and Compliance. Mr. Kelley created the structure for the FBI’s compliance program, which is the first of its kind in the federal government. Today, the FBI has a formal, disciplined process for identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating compliance risks in its day-to-day operations. For the past 14 years in the FBI’s Office of the General Counsel, Mr. Kelley has found innovative ways to strike the crucial balance between law enforcement and national security, and the privacy rights and civil liberties of those we serve. Throughout his 35-year career with the federal government, Mr. Kelley has focused on lasting results based on solid ethics.

Jerome Pender is currently the Deputy Assistant Director of the Operations Branch for the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. Mr. Pender and his team are transforming the FBI’s fingerprint program into a biometric program that includes recognition by face, iris, palm print, and even voice. The Operations Branch is now part of a foreign fingerprint exchange program that collects and shares biometric and biographical data on known or suspected terrorists. They have also created a CJIS Flyaway Program that provides on-site fingerprint identification services at high-security events, critical incidents, and disaster recovery sites. Under Jerome’s leadership, the Operations Branch has surpassed its own goals in terms of coverage and availability. Response times are faster and CJIS has set record processing requests.

Gail Scavongelli, who joined the FBI in 2002, is the Section Chief for the Information Technology Operations Division. Gail and her team have improved FBI efficiencies and updated FBI information technology systems. Her efforts led to the development of a web-based case management system, a new web-based time and attendance system, a web-based system for managing intelligence reports, and a system to track Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests.

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