By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Charles Spencer, a 21-year FBI veteran who most recently served as special agent in charge of the Jacksonville Field Office in Florida, has been named as the new assistant director of the bureau’s International Operations Division.
Spencer will manage the FBI’s legal attaché program at the division, where he’s tasked with building relationships with foreign law enforcement and intelligence partners. The division also trains international law enforcement partners.
Spencer’s long career with the FBI began in 1998, when he was assigned to the Washington Field Office, working on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In 2005, he was promoted to supervisory special agent, overseeing the FBI’s gun vault.
In 2007, the FBI deployed Spencer to Iraq.
A year later, Spencer served as the supervisor of the Oklahoma City Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. In 2011, he was awarded the FBI’s Shield of Bravery for an encounter with a heavily armed domestic terrorist.
In 2013, the FBI promoted him to assistant special agent in charge of the national security branch in the New Orleans Field Office, where he headed up programs covering weapons of mass destruction, counterintelligence, counter=terrorism, cyber-crimes, surveillance, and crisis management.
In 2015, Spencer became the deputy assistant director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.
A year later, Spencer was placed in charge of the Jacksonville office.
Before joining the FBI, Spencer earned a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University. He later became an engineer in the commercial nuclear power industry.
