Chris Leister

In February 2012, Mr. Leister was selected to be ONI’s Senior GEOINT Officer. In this position, he is the Commander’s direct representative to the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG). He is also responsible for coordinating the federated exploitation, analysis and dissemination of maritime/naval targets and serves as the program manager for National Geospatial-Intelligence Program (NGP) funds received by ONI.

Before assuming his current position, Mr. Leister served as the Senior Intelligence Resource, Plans and Programs Analyst within ONI’s Resource Management Office from 2008 to 2012. In this role, Mr. Leister advised Echelon II and III senior management on planning, implementing, and coordinating all aspects of ONI’s assigned programs, which include National Intelligence Program (NIP), Military Intelligence Program (MIP) and National Geospatial Intelligence Program (NGP). He played a critical role as one of the pivot points for ONI’s intelligence planning, programming, budgeting and execution process.

Mr. Leister served in multiple geospatial-intelligence (GEOINT) positions over his 29-year career for the United States Navy. He was the Operations Officer for the Imagery Operations Department, where he was responsible for the oversight of day-to-day operations of a five-division department. He was also responsible for advising senior management on resource implications for future imagery systems, as well as related command architecture and business practices. Mr. Leister has also held multiple GEOINT analytic positions, not only as a civilian navy employee, but also during his eight years of active duty naval service.

Mr. Leister has been the recipient of ONI’s Cooper-Moran Distinguished IT Professional award in 2005, has been awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award in 2012 and ONI’s Richard J. Bryce Memorial Award in 2020 for Collections Excellence in support of the Navy and Naval Intelligence.