J.R. “Bob” McBrien is a retired Senior Executive Service (SES) official with 45 years of federal experience at the US Department of the Treasury, Department of Justice, and Department of Defense. His career focused on the development, coordination, and implementation of interdisciplinary and collaborative policy affecting US national security, particularly at the confluence of law enforcement, intelligence, and economic sanctions.
As an attorney, he began his career at the Department of Justice Organized Crime & Racketeering Section. While at the Department of the Treasury, he was involved in the formulation of the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, the first National Security Decision Directive on Narcotics and National Security of 1986, and later the PATRIOT Act of 2001. During his nearly 25 years with the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), he was principally responsible for the post-Cold War development of the Specially Designated Nationals list, also serving as the Executive Branch’s lead on the development of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act of 1999.
He had the lead role in the conception, design, development, and employment of targeted sanctions against non-state foreign adversaries including narcotics and terrorist elements; and he participated in the development of every sanction Executive Order from late 1987 throughout his career at Treasury. He retired in December 2011 as Associate Director for Global Targeting in OFAC. His career was capped off with three subsequent years as a consulting advisor on sanctions and illicit finance at the Department of Defense Narcotics and Transnational Crime Support Center through Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Mr. McBrien holds the following positions:
Mr. McBrien has also held the following:
Education:
