Richard Calder

Who is Richard Calder?

Richard Calder is a senior official at the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Calder holds a Bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Connecticut and a Master's degree in information systems from George Washington University. He started his career with the CIA as a radio operator after serving in the United States Navy. It was in this role that he found himself trapped for several days inside the CIA's base in Benghazi, Libya, during riots in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. His chief at the time was Thomas Twetten, who rose to become Deputy Director for Operations.

Calder served in numerous roles within the CIA, including operations officer, deputy chief of the Near East Division for Arab operations, and chief of operations and resource management staff of the Directorate of Operations.

In late 1995, then-CIA Director John M. Deutch made Calder an offer to run Directorate of Administration, of whose inefficiencies he had been sharply critical, with a free hand. As his remedy and against nearly universal resistance among his own Directorate's leadership, Calder instituted activity-based costing and a working-capital fund, returning the majority of his Directorate's budget back to the operational units and requiring his directorate to offer its services on a reimbursable basis. The net result was a freeing up of significant resources for use in the Agency's main operational and analytic missions.