John G. Perren Named Assistant Director of Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate

Director Robert S. Mueller has appointed John G. Perren as the assistant director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. Mr. Perren most recently served as the deputy assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division.

Mr. Perren entered on duty as a special agent in 1987 and was assigned to the Newark Field Office, where he worked counterterrorism investigations as a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). During his 10-year tenure in Newark, he also served on the SWAT team and as the aviation coordinator.

In 1997, Mr. Perren was promoted to supervisory special agent of the Domestic Terrorism Operations Unit, Counterterrorism and Planning Section, at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In this position, Mr. Perren coordinated the efforts of 12 field offices located in the Northeast in the fight against terrorism.

Two years later, Mr. Perren became the JTTF supervisor at Washington Field Office (WFO) in Washington, D.C. In 2001, he was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of WFO’s Counterterrorism Branch II. During his tenure, he expanded the JTTF from nine federal, state, and local agencies to 34 and developed a Command and Tactical Operations Center to coordinate crisis management for the division. He also established WFO’s first Joint Intelligence Task Force and Field Intelligence Group.

Mr. Perren was one of three on-scene commanders at the Pentagon after the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks and was responsible for preserving the crime scene, coordinating recovery efforts with special military units, and ensuring the safety of personnel at the crash site. In January 2005, he served as the on-scene commander for FBI field operations in Baghdad and implemented the first contingent of FBI personnel who supported U.S. Special Forces components throughout Iraq.

In July 2005, Mr. Perren was promoted to chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction/Domestic Terrorism Operations Section in the Counterterrorism Division. The section provided national program management and support to detect, deter, and defeat acts of domestic terrorism, as well as the actual or threatened use of weapons of mass destruction. On July 26, 2006, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate was created to ensure the proper policies, protocols, and resources were established and deployed to minimize and mitigate the effects of a weapons of mass destruction incident and to expedite the FBI’s ability to execute its statutory intelligence, investigative, and crisis response obligations. Mr. Perren served as chief of the Countermeasures and Preparedness Section.

In January 2008, Mr. Perren became the special agent in charge of WFO’s Counterterrorism Division.

Before joining the FBI, Mr. Perren was a member of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. for 14 years. He worked violent crimes cases, including undercover assignments, and was later promoted to detective.

Mr. Perren has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from American University and a master’s degree in criminology with a leadership emphasis in weapons of mass destruction from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.