Mar 10, 2021

Ellen McCarthy is a highly accomplished and distinguished
executive whose career started as a junior analyst and ended up
reaching to the very highest echelons of the US intelligence
community. In this OODAcast we explore lessons learned from her
journey, capturing insights that can inform actions for those at
any stage of a career.

Ellen’s career began at the office of Naval Intelligence. She
then moved to Norfolk and the Atlantic Intelligence Center (where
we first met). She moved back to DC and would later lead all
intelligence activities for the US Coast Guard as their director of
intelligence, then joined DoD’s office of the undersecretary of
defense for intelligence working strategy and human capital
management.

Later she led the non profit public private partnership INSA
(the intelligence and national security alliance), helping make
that organization what it is today.

She returned to government service as chief operating officer of
the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), then later led
the firm Noblis as its president.

Ellen was then appointed the Assistant Secretary of State for
Intelligence and Research (INR), where she lead an organization
famed for the highest quality of analysis in the US IC.

We examine her leadership style, which was informed by exposure
to several types of leaders early on in her career. Over time she
developed a knack for creating visions that could help others form
up on a unified purpose. She also thrived in the domain of
executive action, which could come in incredibly handy when
appointed to the number three position at the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency (NGA). We discuss examples of her
decision-making and tools any of us can put in place to optimize
our perspectives. This includes the strong recommendation to know
history. In her case she benefited from a deep dive into the
history of one of the great transformational leaders of the
intelligence community, Wild Bill Donovan, creator and leader of
the Office of Special Services (OSS), a forerunner of the
organization she would later lead, the Department of State Bureau
of Intelligence and Research.