By Steve Neavling
J. William Rivers has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office.
Rivers, who most recently served as a section chief and director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center in Huntsville, Ala., began his career with the FBI in 2002, when he was assigned to the Washington Field Office to investigate counterintelligence matters.
While at the Washington Field Office in 2006, he was certified as a technically trained agent and worked on the Technical Operations Squad to support investigative programs. For the SWAT team, he served as the technical coordinator and was a certified sniper.
In 2013, Rivers became supervisory special agent.
Rivers was promoted to unit chief of the TTA Operations and Development Unit in the Operational Technology Division at headquarters in 2015 and “was responsible for the success of the FBI’s technical investigative personnel,” the bureau said.
In 2018, Rivers was appointed assistant special agent in charge of the Norfolk Field Office in Virginia, where he led all criminal, cyber, and administrative programs. In 2020, he became section chief and director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, a multi-agency center that coordinates bomb-related evidence and intelligence collection for the U.S. government.
Rivers received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky. Before joining the FBI, he worked as a project manager and engineer for a private general construction company in Kentucky.
