Director, United States Secret Service
Mark Sullivan was sworn in as the 22nd Director of the United States Secret Service on May 31, 2006.
Mr. Sullivan was named Deputy Director in January 2006. Prior to that, he served as the Assistant Director for the Office of Protective Operations where he managed all protective activities for the agency, encompassing 12 divisions and 2,300 employees.
A native of Arlington, Massachusetts, Mr. Sullivan began his Secret Service career as a special agent assigned to the Detroit Field Office in 1983, after having served for three years as a special agent in the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1990, Mr. Sullivan was transferred to the Fraud Division in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated and monitored multi-jurisdictional criminal investigations involving credit card fraud, bank fraud, and similar criminal activity. In 1991, Mr. Sullivan received his first assignment to the Presidential Protective Division, where he served for four years.
In 1996, Mr. Sullivan entered the agency’s supervisory ranks with his selection as Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Protective Operations. He returned to the field in 1997 as the Resident Agent in Charge of the Columbus Resident Office, which oversaw all Secret Service activities in Central Ohio. Twenty months later, Mr. Sullivan was promoted and transferred back to Washington, D.C., as Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the Counterfeit Division, where he managed the agency’s investigative activities related to the criminal production and distribution of counterfeit currency and other financial instruments. In July of 1999, he returned to the Presidential Protective Division, this time as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge.
Mr. Sullivan was promoted into the federal Senior Executive Service in July of 2000, when he was selected as a Deputy Assistant Director in the Office of Protective Operations. In 2002, he was reassigned to the position of Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the Vice Presidential Protective Division. A year later, he was reassigned to the position of Deputy Assistant Director, Office of Human Resources and Training.
Mark Sullivan has been the recipient of numerous awards for superior performance throughout his 29-year tenure with the Secret Service and his 34-year career in federal law enforcement, including a Distinguished Presidential Rank Award in 2005 and 2010.
Mr. Sullivan received his bachelor’s degree from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.