Mark A. Bradley Appointed Director of the Information Security Oversight Office
Press Release · Monday, December 5, 2016

Washington, DC

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero has announced the appointment of Mark Bradley as the new Director of the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), which is responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the Government-wide security classification system and the National Industrial Security Program. Mr. Bradley will start on December 27.

In making the announcement, the Archivist said, “Mr. Bradley is a dedicated public servant. His extensive experience with intelligence matters, declassification policy and FOIA will serve him well in his new position as Director of ISOO.”

Mr. Bradley is currently the Director of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Declassification, and Pre-publication Review, National Security Division, Office of Law and Policy at the Department of Justice.  He chairs the Department of Justice’s Department Review Committee, serves as its Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel representative, and sits on its Access Review Committee.  While at the Department, he has also served as the Deputy Counsel for Intelligence Policy, the Acting Chief for Intelligence Oversight, and the Director of the National Security Division’s FOIA/Declassification unit. He has been a member of the Federal government’s Senior Executive Service since 2003.

Before joining the Department of Justice in November 2000, he served as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s legislative assistant for foreign affairs and intelligence matters and as his last legislative director.  He co-drafted the legislation that established the Public Interest Declassification Board.  Mr. Bradley, who remains a member of the District of Columbia Bar, has also worked as a criminal defense lawyer in the District of Columbia defending indigents accused of serious crimes.

The Society for History in the Federal Government awarded A Very Principled Boy, his biography of Soviet spy Duncan Lee, its 2015 George Pendleton Prize for being the best book written by a federal historian in 2014.   

Mr. Bradley is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington & Lee University and holds an M.A. in Modern History from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.  

ISOO is responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the government-wide security classification system under Executive Order 13526, the National Industrial Security Program under Executive Order 12829, as amended, and the Controlled Unclassified Information Program under Executive Order 13556.   As the Director of ISOO, Mr. Bradley will serve as the Executive Secretary of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and the Public Interest Declassification Board, and as the Chairman of the National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee, the State, Local, Tribal, and Private Sector Policy Advisory Committee, and the Controlled Unclassified Information Advisory Council.

#  #  #

For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.