William H. Webster

Chairman, Homeland Security Advisory Council 

William H. Webster is a retired U.S. circuit court judge who currently serves as chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council. In September 1991, he joined the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in its Washington, D.C. office and still maintains an office there since retiring in 2006.

Previously, Webster was sworn in as director of central intelligence on May 26, 1987. In this position, he headed the intelligence community (all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and directed the Central Intelligence Agency until September 1, 1991. He also served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1978 to 1987. He is the only person to have held both of these director positions.

A practicing attorney with the St. Louis law firm of Armstrong Teasdale from 1949 to 1959, Webster served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1960 to 1961. He returned to private practice in 1961. In 1970 Webster was appointed a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and in 1973 was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where he served until 1978.

Webster also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II and again in the Korean War. He has received 18 honorary degrees and numerous awards. In 1991 President George H. W. Bush presented him with both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Security Medal.

Webster holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a juris doctor degree in law from Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Mo.