By Steve Neavling
B. Chad Yarbrough, who was serving as special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, has been named director of the Criminal Investigative Division.
A native of the Dallas area, he joined the bureau as a special agent in 2006, and was first assigned to the Dothan Resident Agency of the Mobile Field Office in Alabama to investigate violent crime and crimes against children.
In 2010, Yarbrough transferred to the Chicago Field Office and became a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and investigated domestic terrorism matters.
In 2012, Yarbrough was promoted to supervisory special agent and worked in the Internal Investigations Unit of the Inspection Division at FBI headquarters.
In 2014, he became supervisory special agent of the Mobile Field Office’s Violent Criminal Threats squad and also supervised Mobile’s Child Exploitation and Safe Streets task forces.
In 2017, Yarbrough became assistant special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office, where he oversaw the criminal, crisis-management, and SWAT programs. Yarbrough led the FBI’s investigation of the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue.
In 2020, Yarborough became section chief of the bureau’s National Threat Operations Section.
In 2021, he was named deputy assistant director in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters to oversee the Transnational Organized Crime, Violent Crime, and Operational Support sections.
Before joining the FBI, Yarbrough worked in the Fort Worth, Texas, area as a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigative Division. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Sam Houston State University in Texas.
