At the Cybersecurity Seminar: Senior VP at Booz Allen Hamilton and former top FBI executive Carl Ghattas talked about how to build a successful career

When Carl Ghattas, the Senior VP at Booz Allen Hamilton, and former Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch of the FBI, joined Duke Trinity College as an undergraduate, he thought he would become a physician. While studying organic chemistry, he realized that he was more interested in solving crimes and chose to become a prosecutor instead. While at the Law School, he attended a talk by an FBI agent who inspired his next career move. “He seemed very happy and accomplished,” remembered Carl Ghattas who applied to be an FBI agent shortly after. Ghattas, who had a 21-year long FBI career, recently visited his Alma Mater, Duke University, and served as guest speaker for the Cybersecurity seminar hosted by Art Ehuan, adjunct professor at the Duke Pratt School of Engineering.

In front of an audience of students in the Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity, Public Policy and Law students, Ghattas talked about how he built his career – from his abandoned dream to be a physician, to a passionate prosecutor and then an FBI agent where he became the fourth highest ranking official to lead the FBI’s operations and intelligence efforts involving all national security matters, ranging from terrorism to espionage to weapons of mass destruction.

He shared with students about his impactful work to remove “some of the worst people on the planet” and about the increasing intersection between technology and intelligence. “We needed to understand the use of technology,” said Ghattas, who became the leader of the FBI global cybersecurity operations.

David Hoffman, senior lecturing fellow at the Duke Law School, asked Carl Ghattas what skills gained in his college years helped him be successful. “First and foremost, I enjoyed reading. The ability to ingest large amounts of information and to analyze it critically, also to effectively identify problems, recommend solutions, and understand how to execute them were very important in my career,” Ghattas said. In addition to critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills, Ghata mentioned another essential skill – the ability to understand multiple perspectives which is very valuable in the context of interdisciplinary work. In summary, to be successful requires “having a lifelong learning attitude and leaning into your strengths,” he concluded.