Jim McCool

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Data and Digital Innovation


Mr. McCool, the CEO of McCool Team LLC, serves as a consultant to technology and artificial intelligence companies. He advises on intelligence and analytic operations, intelligence tradecraft, and in particular the technologies that advance such operations. He retired as a senior executive at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in the spring of 2023.

Mr. McCool’s final NGA assignment was starting the Data and Digital Innovation Directorate; a new organization responsible for leading, creating, and delivering GEOINT artificial intelligence. He also served during the past several years as NGA’s senior officer in Israel.

Mr. McCool had many other leadership roles covering a wide range of topics at NGA. He provided direction on improving analytic skills and methods as well as the development of automation technology. In another role, Mr. McCool was responsible for ensuring high quality, integrated analysis between and across all NGA analytic offices. He also led the revamp of NGA’s recruitment, hiring, and development of analysts. Mr. McCool led other offices covering precision targeting, transnational issues, and counterterrorism.

During Mr. McCool’s time at CIA, he was a briefer for the Presidents Daily Brief (PDB) and led analytical teams focused on insurgency, counterinsurgency, and irregular warfare. He also managed a team in CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, where he expanded terrorist weapons analysis and created a new unit focused on terrorist explosive devices.

Mr. McCool began his career at CIA as an imagery analyst and thereafter served as an all-source analyst. He completed MIT’s Seminar XXI and has a B.S. degree from the University of Maryland focused on cartography and remote sensing. He also served stateside and overseas in the US Air Force.


Last updated on: October 13, 2023