- Burns served as deputy secretary of state and ambassador to Russia and Jordan
- He led the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 2015 to 2021
- Burns currently advises Evercore on global affairs
HawkEye 360 has appointed former CIA Director William Burns to its board of directors. As the first career diplomat to lead the agency, Burns brings national security expertise to support the strategic expansion of space-based signals intelligence and radio frequency geospatial capabilities across the defense and intelligence community client base, HawkEye 360 said Tuesday. The company highlighted his more than 30 years of diplomatic, intelligence and national security leadership.
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Who Is William Burns?
Burns is a two-time Wash100 Award winner who has served as Evercore‘s senior adviser for global affairs since June 2025. He took the helm of the CIA in 2021 and remained director until January 2025. He joined the White House Cabinet in July 2023 while leading the agency.
His State Department career included posts as deputy secretary of state and under secretary of state for political affairs, as well as ambassadorships to Russia and Jordan. He also served on the National Security Council as special assistant to the president. Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 and has received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards.
From 2015 to 2021, Burns headed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
What Will Burns Bring to HawkEye 360?
HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said Burns understands the security challenges confronting the U.S. and its allies and brings deep knowledge of global affairs and national security. “His expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we continue advancing our capabilities, integrating our data and analytics into operational workflows, and delivering trusted intelligence directly to the Warfighter,” Serafini added.
What Leadership Changes & Deals Has HawkEye 360 Made Recently?
Burns’ appointment follows the company’s hiring of John Monahan as senior vice president of U.S. government in October. Monahan, previously vice president of space protection programs at Lockheed Martin, leads HawkEye 360’s U.S. government signals intelligence business.
In June, the company named Cory Peichel and Mark Volpi to senior executive roles at its Innovative Signal Analysis business unit. Peichel, who joined ISA in 2022, spent most of his roughly three decades in government intelligence and signals work at Raytheon. Volpi first joined ISA in 2003 and returned in September 2025 after serving as a director at Lone Star Analysis.
In January, the company appointed Michael Turner as chief legal officer. Turner was most recently chief legal and administrative officer at 908 Devices and earlier served as co-CEO, general counsel and executive director at Allied Minds.
On the board side, HawkEye 360 added former Intelsat CEO and eight-time Wash100 Award winner David Wajsgras to its board in August 2025. Wajsgras previously spent more than 14 years at Raytheon, most recently as president of its intelligence, information and services business.
Alongside its leadership changes, HawkEye 360 has reached several business milestones this year. In August, the National Reconnaissance Office selected the company for its Commercial Radio Frequency Capabilities Augmentation contract, which has no value ceiling. The award followed a demonstration project that showed HawkEye 360’s RF systems were mission-ready. The NRO began evaluating commercial RF vendors in September 2022 through a three-stage initiative that included modeling, simulation and live on-orbit testing. The contract is expected to provide RF collection for national security, civil and humanitarian missions.
Three months earlier, HawkEye 360 priced its initial public offering at $26 per share, raising $416 million.
