William Renn Gade

William Renn Gade recently retired from U.S. government service after more than 40 years of combined military and civilian work. He has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since 2017.

His last government position was as the Deputy General Counsel for Intelligence and Security at the Department of Defense, a role he took on in July 2021. In that capacity, Mr. Gade advised the DOD General Counsel, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, the Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, and other senior leaders on a wide range of legal issues, including intelligence, cyber, space, sensitive activities, security, artificial intelligence, and advanced technology.

Mr. Gade previously served as the General Counsel for the Defense Intelligence Agency and as Senior Legal Counsel for the National Counterterrorism Center and the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Mr. Gade is a retired Army officer. During his military career, he served as the Staff Judge Advocate, the senior legal officer in a command, for several joint and Army commands, including U.S. Special Operations Command, Multinational Force-Iraq, Multinational Corps-Iraq, XVIII Airborne Corps, and the 82nd Airborne Division. He also served as the Military Assistant to the Department of Defense General Counsel, Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as Chief of International and Operational Law at the Office of the Army Judge Advocate General.

Mr. Gade graduated from Drake University and Drake University Law School.