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Brian Bulatao
15th Under Secretary of State for Management
In office
May 17, 2019 – January 20, 2021
PresidentDonald Trump
SecretaryMike Pompeo
Preceded byPatrick F. Kennedy
Succeeded byJohn R. Bass
Personal details
Born (1964-09-30) September 30, 1964 (age 59)
Political partyRepublican
EducationUnited States Military Academy (BS)
Harvard University (MBA)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1986–1993
Rank Captain[citation needed]

Brian Joseph Bulatao[1][dead link] (born 30 September 1964) is an American businessman and former government official. In 2017 he was named as Chief Operating Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency by then-agency director Mike Pompeo.[2] In June 2018, Bulatao was nominated to be Under Secretary of State for Management by President Donald Trump.[3] On May 16, 2019, Bulatao was confirmed by the United States Senate in a 92–5 vote;[4] he was sworn in the next day.

After leaving the Trump administration, he was named chief administrative officer at Activision Blizzard effective March 2021.[5][6]

Early life and education

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Bulatao was raised in Pennsylvania, one of three children of Agapito and Brenda Bulatao. His father was an immigrant from the Philippines and his mother's parents immigrated from Greece and Poland.[7]

Bulatao graduated in 1986 from the United States Military Academy at West Point,[1] where he rose to the rank of cadet captain, and was involved in white water canoeing, scuba diving, mountaineering and 150-lb. football. Nicknamed "Rambo," he was described in the 1986 Howitzer yearbook as a Renaissance man who earned the respect of all.[8] He was a classmate of Ulrich Brechbuhl and Mike Pompeo and later helped Pompeo found Thayer Aerospace.[9] Later he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.[10]

Career

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Secretary Pompeo swears in Brian Bulatao as the new Under Secretary of State for Management with Ulrich Brechbuhl looking on.

Bulatao served in the US Army from 1986 to 1993, graduating from Ranger School in that time.[11] After his military service he worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.[12] In 1997 he was one of the founders of Thayer Aerospace together with a number of other West Point graduates. Among them were his former West Point classmates Mike Pompeo and Ulrich Brechbuhl.[13] While two of the other founders left the company a short time later, Bulatao and Pompeo remained with Thayer until 2006.

Bulatao later joined Chick Packaging Inc. as its CEO, and after the company's acquisition by Nefab A/B in 2010[14] he became Executive Vice President, leading the combined operations in North and South America. Later he went into private equity, finally as a senior adviser at Highlander Partners, L.P., a Dallas-based investment firm that claims more than $1 billion in assets under management.

In 2017 when Pompeo became Director of the CIA, he brought Bulatao in as a senior advisor, then named him as Chief Operation Officer, a position that earlier was named Executive Director. In this position his priorities are the streamlining of the hiring process, taking a systematic look at the alignment of strategy, staffing, funding, and other resources; making CIA's contracting process more effective and efficient; ensuring that the Agency as a whole is positioned to invest in and lead in cutting-edge technologies; and finding innovative ways to protect CIA officers' identities and operations in the digital age.[15][16]

In July 2018 Bulatao was nominated for the position of Under Secretary of State for Management as the successor to Patrick F. Kennedy. In May 2019 Senator Bob Menendez lifted the almost year-long hold he had placed on the confirmation as soon as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to send to the Senate documentation relating to allegations that "Trump administration political appointees at the State Department had sought to remove or reassign career employees who were seen as hostile to Trump’s agenda." During the nomination hearings, Bulatao said that if he were confirmed, he would not tolerate "political litmus tests" in the department.[17][18]

In March 2021, Bulatao joined Activision Blizzard as Chief Administrative Officer and oversees the Call of Duty Endowment in addition to administrative actions including Corporate Social Responsibility activities across Activision Blizzard.[19]

Personal

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Bulatao was married and has a son and daughter.[7][20]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Brian Joseph Bulatao". West Point Association of Graduates. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  2. ^ Windrem, Robert (27 April 2017). "CIA's New "Mayor" Comes From Finance Firm, Not Intelligence World". NBC News. Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  3. ^ "Seventeen Nominations and One Withdrawal Sent to the Senate Today". whitehouse.gov. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-19 – via National Archives.
  4. ^ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress - 1st Session". United States Senate. 16 May 2019. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Brian Bulatao". Activision Blizzard. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  6. ^ Grayson, Nathon (30 March 2021). "Activision Blizzard Hires Former Trump Administration Member Once Decried As 'Bully'". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  7. ^ a b "Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, "Statement of Brian Bulatao,"" (PDF). Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 18 July 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2022.
  8. ^ U.S.M.A. Howitzer Yearbook 1986, "Brian Joseph Bulatao," p. 436
  9. ^ Toosi, Nahal (August 20, 2018). "Pompeo's inner circle heavy on business, military experience". Politico. Arlington VA. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  10. ^ "LEADING AT STATE". alumni.hbs.edu. 15 June 2021.
  11. ^ "40 Under 40 — Brian Bulatao". Wichita Business Journal. 12 July 2013. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  12. ^ "Brian Bulatao". LinkedIn.
  13. ^ Dinell, David (13 December 1998). "Army buddies team to fight on Air Capital business front". Wichita Business Journal. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 2022-08-04.
  14. ^ "Nefab Acquires Chick Packaging". NEFAB. 15 September 2010. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  15. ^ Syeed, Nafeesa (19 April 2008). "The CIA Is Getting a Private-Sector Makeover". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018.
  16. ^ "CIA Chief Operating Officer Speaks to Annuitants at Central Intelligence Retiree Association (CIRA) Event". Central Intelligence Agency. 9 March 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  17. ^ Wadhams, Nick; Flatley, Daniel (2 May 2019). "Menendez Drops Hold on Pompeo Friend for State Department Post". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019.
  18. ^ Wilkinson, Tracy (26 April 2019). "In his first year, Pompeo brought 'swagger' but made little progress on foreign policy priorities". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019.
  19. ^ "Brian Bulatao". activisionblizzard.com. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  20. ^ "BORGES, RANDALL". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 22 February 2015. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019.
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