William Burns
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 2021-
William J. Burns in 2021 (CIA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
William Burns has been the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since March 2021. He was previously a career diplomat, responsible for leading back-channel nuclear negotiations with Iran in 2013 as Deputy Secretary of State.
Early life
William Joseph Burns was born on 11 April 1956, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.1
His father, General William F. Burns, headed the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the latter years of the Reagan administration.2
The younger Burns graduated from LaSalle University with a B.A. in History in 1978. He then attended Oxford University as a Marshall scholar, earning an M.Phil. in 1980 and a D.Phil. in 1981.3
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