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NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
CENTRAl SECURITY SERVICE

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755-6000

NSA PRESS RELEASE
10 July 2000
For further information contact:
NSA Public and Media Affairs, 301-688-6524

William B. Black, Jr., Former NSA Employee, Nominated as New Deputy Director

National Security Agency (NSA) Director Lt Gen Michael V. Hayden has nominated former Agency employee Mr. William B. Black, Jr., as the next Deputy Director of the Agency, pending approval by the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. This nomination marks one of the few times that a Deputy Director was not nominated from within the Agency.

"NSA is in the midst of transforming its foreign signals intelligence and information assurance missions to operate at the highest possible levels of both modernization and readiness," Hayden said. "For this Agency, change was--and remains--an imperative."

Mr. Black has worked with Science Applications International Corporation, a defense contractor, since retiring from NSA in 1997. While at NSA, he focused on new ways of supporting military operations and worked across the Intelligence Community to develop innovative processes for intelligence collection. Mr. Black began his career at NSA in 1959.

"Bill was a trailblazer in reshaping how NSA supports the Nation's military operations," Hayden said. "As a cross between an iconoclast and an innovator, he knows the greatness of NSA, but he also knows the need to change, adapt and transForm."

As the new Deputy Director, Mr. Black will assist Lt Gen Hayden in changing NSA's internal processes and culture. He will make NSA's transformation to remain a world-class cryptologic provider in the 21st Century his priority and ensure that the Agency's change initiatives do not become buried under inertia, opposition or even routine daily business, according to Hayden.

"This is not about succeeding in today's conditions, the nomination of Bill Black is about creating tomorrow's successes," Hayden said. "Bill is the right person for the times."

In April, Lt Gen Hayden formed a committee of internal and external participants to conduct an extensive search for candidates for the next Deputy Director, a position vacated in June 2000 by Miss Barbara McNamara. The committee helped to define necessary skills for the position and explored potential candidates both within and outside NSA.