Leadership of the National Reconnaissance Office

The Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (DNRO) of the United States is responsible to the Secretary of Defense (through the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence) and the Director of National Intelligence for all national space and assigned airborne reconnaissance activities. The DNRO provides top-level management direction to the NRO in response to Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence requirements.

Chronological list of National Reconnaissance Office directors

This is a list of directors of the NRO, and the terms in office.

Name	Term of Office	Presidential Administration(s)	Significant events
Dr. Richard M. Bissell, Jr.	September 1961 – February 1962^[1]	Kennedy	Co-director with Dr. Charyk
Dr. Joseph V. Charyk	September 6, 1961 – March 1, 1963	Kennedy	First NRO co-director
Dr. Brockway McMillan	March 1, 1963 – October 1, 1965	Kennedy/Johnson
Dr. Alexander H. Flax	October 1, 1965 – March 17, 1969	Johnson
Dr. John L. McLucas	March 17, 1969 – December 20, 1973	Nixon
Mr. James W. Plummer	December 21, 1973 – June 28, 1976	Nixon/Ford
Mr. Thomas C. Reed	August 9, 1976 – April 7, 1977	Ford/Carter
Dr. Hans Mark	August 3, 1977 – October 7, 1979	Carter
Dr. Robert J. Hermann	October 8, 1979 – August 2, 1981	Carter/Reagan
Mr. Edward (Pete) C. Aldridge, Jr.	August 3, 1981 – December 16, 1988	Reagan
Mr. Martin C. Faga	September 28, 1989 – March 5, 1993	Bush/Clinton	Declassification of NRO
Mr. Jeffrey K. Harris	May 19, 1994 – February 26, 1996	Clinton	Declassification of CORONA/ARGON/LANYARD
Mr. Keith R. Hall	March 28, 1997 – December 13, 2001	Clinton/Bush	September 11, 2001 attacks
Mr. Peter B. Teets	December 2001 – March 2005	Bush
Dr. Donald M. Kerr	July 2005 – October 5, 2007	Bush
Mr. Scott F. Large	October 19, 2007 – April 18, 2009^[2]	Bush/Obama
General Bruce Carlson, USAF (Ret.)	June 12, 2009 – July 20, 2012^[3]	Obama
Ms. Betty J. Sapp	July 20, 2012 – April 4, 2019	Obama/Trump	First woman NRO Director
Dr. Christopher Scolese	August 5, 2019 – present	Trump/Biden	First presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed NRO Director^[4]

List of Deputy Directors of National Reconnaissance Office

No.	Deputy Director		Term
No.	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Term length
1		Major General John T. Sheridan	July 2006	June 2008	~1 year, 336 days
2		Major General Ellen M. Pawlikowski (born 1956)	June 2008	January 2010	~1 year, 214 days
3		Major General Susan K. Mashiko	January 2010	June 2013	~3 years, 151 days
4		Major General Anthony J. Cotton	June 2013	November 2015	~2 years, 153 days
5		Major General Stephen Denker	November 2015	~25 June 2018	~2 years, 222 days
6		Brigadier General Mark Baird (1965–2023)	~25 June 2018	December 2018	~173 days
–		Brigadier General Christopher Povak (born 1970) Acting	December 2018	8 July 2019	~205 days
7		Major General Michael Guetlein (born 1967)	8 July 2019^[5]	9 August 2021	2 years, 32 days
8		Major General Donna D. Shipton (born c. 1970)	9 August 2021^[6]	22 August 2022	1 year, 13 days
9		Major General Christopher Povak (born 1970)	9 September 2022^[7]	Incumbent	1 year, 279 days