david lyon - BIOGRAPHY

Mr. David Lyon is a global intelligence and security executive with extensive experience in the private sector as an international business consultant advising clients on issues relating to people risk, talent acquisition, team building, insider threat, client relations management, business development, intelligence and security issues, and geopolitical risk and strategy.

Dave served for over a decade as an undercover intelligence operative with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s Directorate of Operations / National Clandestine Service. He completed multiple overseas field tours where his missions focused primarily on counterterrorism, foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, counterespionage, cybersecurity, and political-military issues. He has specialized training in human behavioral analysis and unique, on-the-ground experience evaluating individuals’ suitability for the most sensitive missions, often with life or death consequences. Under extremely hazardous conditions, Dave successfully spotted, assessed, developed, and recruited numerous individuals to betray their own countries or organizations and convinced them to secretly provide classified intelligence to the United States Government despite grave personal risk.

Additionally, Dave served as a commissioned intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy and is qualified as an Information Dominance Warfare Officer (IDWO), all-source intelligence analyst, and subject matter expert in human intelligence (HUMINT). The bulk of his military service was with a naval intelligence unit attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He is the recipient of various military decorations, as well as a number of awards from his time at CIA.

Prior to joining CIA and being commissioned in the Navy, Dave was an Assistant Country Director for China within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) at the Pentagon. He also worked at OSD’s Office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, for the Foreign Commercial Service at the US Embassy in Beijing, China, and at the White House. Throughout his government career, Dave was operational on six continents.

Dave attended the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where he earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees: one in International Relations and a second in East Asian Studies. He also received a Master of Science in Criminal Justice with a concentration in the Analysis of Criminal Behavior from the University of Cincinnati. Additionally, he has taken graduate- level coursework in national security and strategic studies at the U.S. Naval War College.

Dave is a member of the Central Intelligence Retirees’ Association and the OSS Society. He was also a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He speaks Mandarin Chinese along with rudimentary Indonesian and Spanish.



Dave is a loyal and lifelong Rod Stewart fan. After having grown up in the northeast, he now lives in sunny Florida. His favorite television shows are The Office, Ted Lasso, and Miami Vice. He hopes to one day buy a yacht and christen it “Sea Lyon.”