\By Steve Neavling
Michael D. Nordwall, who was serving as head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, has been named assistant director of the bureau’s Criminal Investigative Division.
Nordwall’s career as a special agent began in 2002, when he was first assigned to the Phoenix Field Office working on counterterrorism, violent crime, crimes in Indian Country, and organized crime.
Nordwall was promoted in 2009 to supervisory special agent in the Operations Unit of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at headquarters.
In 2011, Nordwall transferred to the Tampa Field Office in Florida, where he oversaw an organized crime drug enforcement strike force known as Panama Express.
In 2014, Nordwall was tapped to serve as an associate director in the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Executive Office, where he was the primary representative for federal law enforcement. Nordwall also oversaw the attorney general’s Consolidated Priority Organization Target program, which focused government efforts on disrupting and dismantling the most significant criminal organizations.
In 2016, Nordwall returned to the Tampa Field Office to oversee the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
In June 2018, he was transferred to the Denver Field Office to serve as assistant special agent in charge of the Criminal Branch and all Colorado resident agencies.
In 2019, he was promoted to chief of the Transnational Organized Crime Global Section in the Criminal Investigative Division at headquarters.
Nordwall was appointed special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office in 2021.
Nordwall received a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Auburn University in Alabama. Before joining the FBI, he worked in the petrochemical industry.
