Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was presented with the 2023 Wash100 Award for her continued focus on national security threat assessment and efforts to enhance sharing of information to advance critical missions.
This is the third consecutive time that Haines secured Executive Mosaic’s most prestigious award in all of government contracting industry. Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for her as one of your favorite leaders of consequence in the GovCon sector.
Her inclusion in the 2023 class builds on her previous Wash100 recognitions in the previous two years, when she continuously led initiatives focused on advancing national security and the intelligence community.
“Avril shows up every day to one of the toughest jobs in the world– director of national intelligence— a job that might crush the average executive. People appreciate her alacrity and consistency, which is exactly what our industry needs,” commented Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the esteemed Wash100 Award.
Most notably, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence published the 2022 Annual Threat Assessment in March. Built on the collective insights of the IC members, the report highlights “the most direct, serious threats” to U.S. national interests that require a robust intelligence response and focuses on weapons of mass destruction, cyber and other functional concerns on threat actors such as China and Russia.
“These categories [namely adversaries and competitors, critical transnational threats, and conflicts and instability] often overlap,” Haines said before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence upon the release of the assessment.
“And one of the key challenges of this era is assessing how many various threats and trends are likely to intersect, so as to identify where their interactions may result in fundamentally greater risk to our interests than one might otherwise expect or where they introduce new opportunities.”
The DNI also appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee in May to emphasize the national security threats posed by Russia, China, Iran and terrorist organizations.
According to her, China presents military, technology and economic challenges to the U.S. and is considered by the IC as an unparalleled priority. Meanwhile, Russia uses nuclear rhetoric to deter the U.S. from providing Ukraine with military aid.
Aside from reporting on global threats, Haines’ office made strides to look into reforming the declassification process.
“It is my view that deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner, be that sharing with our intelligence partners, our oversight bodies, or, when appropriate, with the general public,” the DNI wrote in response to a letter from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., regarding the topic.
She informed the lawmakers about the efforts within the IC to modernize the declassification process and committed to continuing collaboration with executive branch partners on updating classified information-related policies.
In October, Haines served as a keynote speaker during the Potomac Officers Club’s 8th Annual Intel Summit.
“Central to our nation’s effort is addressing the challenging landscape of threats—is having a highly functional, adaptive and innovative intelligence community that’s capable of meeting the ever-evolving landscape—investing in the IC as an element of national power. And that is the priority, the institutional priority of having a strong adaptive and innovative IC, that I put at the top of my list at this critical time,” said the DNI.
Haines is the seventh Senate-confirmed DNI. She was sworn in on Jan. 21, 2021, and has since then prioritized efforts to address national security threats, climate change and other related critical missions.
Her career includes time serving on the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee, the CIA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Avril Haines and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for their selection to receive the 2023 Wash100 Award.
