Washington, D.C. : Director Christopher Wray has named Michael D. Nordwall as the assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division. Mr. Nordwall most recently served as the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office.
Mr. Nordwall began his career with the FBI as a special agent in 2002. He was first assigned to the Phoenix Field Office, where he worked counterterrorism, violent crime, crimes in Indian Country, and organized crime matters. He was also a member of the Phoenix SWAT team.
In 2009, Mr. Nordwall was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Operations Unit of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In this role, he managed FBI investigations of and responses to WMD threats in the U.S. and internationally.
In 2011, Mr. Nordwall transferred to the Tampa Field Office to oversee an organized crime drug enforcement strike force known as “Panama Express.” The interagency strike force countered transnational criminal organizations trafficking drugs on the high seas. In 2014, Mr. Nordwall was selected as an associate director in the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Executive Office, serving as the primary representative for federal law enforcement. He also oversaw the attorney general’s Consolidated Priority Organization Target program, which focused government efforts on disrupting and dismantling the most significant criminal organizations.
Mr. Nordwall returned to the Tampa Field Office in 2016 to lead the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In 2018, he reported to the Denver Field Office as the assistant special agent in charge of the Criminal Branch and all Colorado resident agencies. In 2019, he was promoted to chief of the Transnational Organized Crime Section in the Criminal Investigative Division. The section manages investigations and intelligence collection against transnational criminal organizations across the globe. In 2021, he was promoted to special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office.
Prior to joining the FBI, he worked in the petrochemical industry. Mr. Nordwall earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Auburn University.
