CIA's New "Mayor" Comes From Finance Firm, Not Intelligence World
Brian Bulatao, a private equity investor from Dallas, is slated to become the No. 3 official at the CIA, according to current and former intelligence officials.
The job has traditionally, but not always, been filled by career intelligence officers. It is not subject to Senate confirmation.
The position has long been known as "executive director," but CIA Director Mike Pompeo is changing the title to "chief operating officer." The executive director has been called the CIA’s "mayor," responsible for the internal workings of the agency that employs an estimated 20,000 personnel worldwide.
Bulatao is no stranger to Pompeo, the former Kansas congressman who was named director by President Trump. The two were West Point classmates, graduating in 1986, and later business partners, according to officials. Pompeo, first in his class at the academy, graduated from Harvard Law School. Bulatao was an Army Ranger who served as a paratrooper, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Pompeo and Bulatao were among several West Point alumni who in 1998 founded Thayer Aerospace, a Wichita machining company. The firm received financing from a venture capital company funded by the Koch brothers, according to a 2011 story in the Washington Post. The company was sold in 2006 and Bulatao moved on to executive roles at a packaging company before entering private equity in 2010. He is currently a senior adviser at Highlander Partners, L.P., a Dallas-based investment firm that claims more than $1 billion in assets under management.