Title: Former FBI Director Mueller to be Executive-in-Residence

Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller, who stepped down as FBI director on Sept. 4 after 12 years of service, has been appointed the university’s first Distinguished Executive-in-Residence.

“There are four areas that I’m interested in – national security, cyber security, organizations in transition and leadership,” says Director Mueller, who took office seven days before the 9/11 attacks in 2001. “I’ve been very fortunate to have experience in these areas and I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to discuss these issues with students and faculty.”

As distinguished executive-in-residence at Georgetown, he will provide faculty, students and university leaders with insights and perspectives based on his lengthy career in public service.

Mueller, who will return to practicing law, says he looks forward to being associated with a university with “Jesuit values, dignity and integrity.”

A Distinguished Career

Born in New York City, Director Mueller joined the United States Marine Corps after graduating from Princeton University. He served as an officer for three years and led a rifle platoon in Vietnam. After military service, for which he earned both the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, he completed a law degree from the University of Virginia.

He later served in the U.S. Department of Justice, as a senior litigator for the District of Columbia’s United States Attorney’s Office, and from 1998 to 2001 as United States Attorney in San Francisco. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1991.

FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce said in a recent press release that Director Mueller “reshaped the FBI from a traditional law enforcement agency to a threat-based intelligence to a threat-focused, intelligence-based national security organization.”

Depth of Insight

“Robert Mueller brings to Georgetown an extraordinary depth of insight related to issues of national and cyber security and of public service at the highest levels,” says Georgetown President John J. DeGioia.“Throughout his distinguished career, he has demonstrated great integrity, character and leadership, and it is a privilege to welcome him to Georgetown.”

The Washington, D.C., resident says he has friends and relatives who went to Georgetown, and that with his wife, Ann, and two daughters, has attended many of the university’s athletic and other events.

“I think it will be tremendously invigorating to spend time with students and faculty who are on the cutting edge of new ideas, new initiatives with a global orientation,” he says.