Hayden, Michael Vincent (1945- )

US soldier and intelligence specialist, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2006. With a long career in military intelligence, in 2005 he became a general and principal deputy director of national intelligence. He became CIA director after the resignation of Porter J Goss in May 2006.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of an Irish-American welder, he studied history at university before training for the military. He entered active military service in 1969 and became a specialist in military intelligence. As director of the National Security Agency 1999-2005, he developed a strategy to place greater reliance on US industry for domestic spying and oversaw a large increase in surveillance of communications between persons in the USA and alleged foreign terrorist organizations.