John Bennett

John Bennett

Global Head of Government Affairs

John (Jack) Bennett is the global head of government affairs in the Cyber Risk practice of Kroll, based in San Francisco. He leverages over 25 years of experience, which includes leading the third and sixth largest FBI field divisions where he focused on providing investigative and intelligence support to various FBI teams and governments globally.

Jack’s significant responsibilities include coordinating with large enforcement agencies, providing investigative assistance and developing policies and programs for federal and global government agencies. Having led a variety of complex investigations throughout his distinguished career, Jack’s expertise includes matters related to global security, trust and safety, privacy, risk management, cyber incident response and insider threats. 

Prior to joining Kroll, Jack was the Assistant Director in Charge leading the FBI Los Angeles Field Division, the third largest FBI field division, with a staff of 1500 and 120 management personnel. In this role, he coordinated a 40 agency intelligence coalition and facilitated one of the largest law enforcement partnerships with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff offices. Additionally, he provided investigative and intelligence support to all South East Asia and Oceania Region Legal Attaché offices. 

Before joining the FBI Los Angeles Field Division, Jack was the Special Agent in Charge leading the FBI San Francisco Field Division, the sixth largest FBI field division, with a staff of 800. He was also the Chairman of the Special Agents in Charge (SAC) Advisory Board, reporting to the FBI Director. His key responsibilities involved creating multi-year strategic direction for the division, including threat mitigation and budget forecast and execution. Further, he also designed the UK’s embedded Foreign Intelligence Service Personnel program along with the development and deployment of the FBI’s crisis management protocols and capabilities for northern California. While leading the LAFD, Jack also worked with FBI headquarters to develop policies for the FBI’s Insider Threat and Damage Assessment programs. In this role, he additionally oversaw San Francisco’s branches of cyber, intelligence analysis, counterintelligence, violent crime, white collar crime, counter terrorism, air wing and digital forensic lab.

In his previous roles, Jack has worked as a Domestic Director of National Intelligence in the Pacific region, where he led the integration and coordination of federal, state, local and tribal intelligence strategy in the region. He also engaged top private sector tech companies to ensure their views were in the comprehensive threat analysis of the region. Additionally, he chaired the coordination of all U.S. government agencies intelligence capabilities within the region. 

In one of his previous roles as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Cyber Branch in the San Francisco Division, Jack embedded with EUROPOL’s European Cyber Crime Center (EC3) to manage FBI cyber operations. He was appointed to the Director’s Next Generation Cyber initiative to overhaul the FBI’s cyber capabilities. He also led national security surveillance programs, air wing/flight operations, SWAT tactical command, civil rights program, human trafficking program coordination and crimes against children program. He oversaw operations of special events, including the America’s Cup and the San Francisco Giants World Series. He also expanded FBI customer and victim relations with top Silicon Valley tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

Earlier as a Supervisory Special Agent for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Jack embedded with INTERPOL in Lyon, France to represent FBI’s interests for global operations. He was involved in the FBI liaison with Congress to draft child protection legislation, resulting in passing the Adam Walsh Act. He also developed sharing protocols and law enforcement databases between the NCMEC/U.S. Government and the Interpol and Europol. He has trained international law enforcement on child abduction and exploitation matters.

Jack has been engaged in several notable assignments, which include developing and advancing all digital forensic policies and procedures for the FBI. In one of his previous roles, he was also in charge of all digital forensic laboratories and programs: cryptology, malicious software, video, audio and image analysis, computer science, computer analysis and response teams, certifications, accreditations and forensic training. He has also partnered with Australian and UK governments to provide forensic teams with advanced forensic services to assist with counter-terrorism operations, and oversaw the FBI covert operations in Phnom Phen, Cambodia targeting the child sex tourism industry. In addition, Jack was responsible for leading the landmark intellectual property rights criminal investigation between Oracle and SAP. 

Jack received a B.A. in criminal justice and sociology from Eckerd College. He has completed his trainings in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy, Drug Enforcement Administration Academy and Georgia Bureau of Investigation Academy. He holds a Carnegie Mellon Executive Chief Information Security Officer Certification.



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