What do former spies do when they quit the spy game? Plan covert action campaigns against the nasty old ladies in their homeownersâ?? association? Overthrow their city council for fun? No, the majority of former CIA case officers work as consultants or contractors within the U.S. intelligence community.
While returning to work as intelligence consultant is the norm, some few do forge a different path, applying lessons learned from government service to a new life in the private sector. I recently spoke with two former CIA case officers, both of whom had served in the most senior position a case officer can win overseas, that of Chief of Station, or COS.
A COS is the presidentâ??s senior intelligence officer and personal intelligence representative in the country where he or she is serving. I asked the two former Chiefs how the skills they developed as field officers for the CIA translated to the more entrepreneurial existence of the private sector. The first was Chris Burgess, now COO and CSO of Atigeo, a Bellevue, Washington firm focused on mining Big Data. The second was Ren Stelloh, who until July 2012 was CEO of PhaseOne
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