Director Christopher Wray has named James E. Dennehy as the special agent in charge of the Newark Field Office in New Jersey. Mr. Dennehy most recently served as the SAC of the Counterintelligence and Cyber Division of the New York Field Office.

Mr. Dennehy joined the FBI as a special agent in 2002 and was assigned to the New York office to work counterintelligence cases. He also served on the SWAT team and was certified as a crisis management coordinator. In 2013, he was promoted to supervisory special agent of the counterintelligence and counter-proliferation squad in New York’s Hudson Valley and White Plains resident agencies.

In 2015, Mr. Dennehy transferred to FBI Headquarters to serve as a unit chief in the Counterproliferation Center and was promoted to an assistant section chief of the center in 2016. During his time there, Mr. Dennehy guided the FBI’s efforts to thwart foreign adversaries trying to obtain export-controlled, sensitive technologies related to weapons of mass destruction and missile, space, and conventional weapons systems.

He returned to the New York Field Office in 2017 as the assistant special agent in charge over crisis management, firearms, operations command, recruiting, private sector engagement, community outreach, and several other programs.

In 2018, Mr. Dennehy was promoted to chief of staff to the executive assistant director of the National Security Branch at Headquarters. He also served as the section chief of the NSB’s Executive Staff Section. The NSB includes the Counterterrorism Division, the Counterintelligence Division, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, the Terrorist Screening Center, and the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Mr. Dennehy was named special agent in charge of the Intelligence and Surveillance Division of the New York Field Office in 2019. He later served as New York’s SAC of the Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.

Mr. Dennehy earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Villanova University. Prior to joining the FBI, he served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for seven years and deployed to Haiti, Liberia, and the Adriatic Sea.