Major General Richard M. Dick Lake (USMC-Ret)

Director, Global Security, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Major General Richard M. “Dick” Lake U.S. Marine Corps (Retired) served as the Director, Global Security (Chief Security Officer) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from September 2013 to November 2017.  His responsibilities included providing physical, personnel, and information security as well as executive protection.  Dick Lake also led the foundation’s incident and business continuity management programs supporting over 2,000 employees and staff traveling globally and working from two U.S.-based and seven international offices.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2013, Dick served for over 36 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence, foreign area, and infantry officer   As a General Officer, he led one of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s elements as the Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Marine Corps for four years.  Dick subsequently served for four years with the Central Intelligence Agency as one of the deputy directors of the National Clandestine Service (now Directorate of Operations).   Earlier in his career, he served in a variety of command and staff positions in the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Africa including humanitarian, crisis, contingency, and combat operations.

His formal education began with graduation with honors from The Citadel where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages.  He also received a Master of Arts in Management from Central Michigan University as well as being the honor graduate of the Defense Intelligence College (now the National Intelligence University) where he earned a Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence.  He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in Strategic Intelligence from the National Defense Intelligence College (now the National Intelligence University).

Dick Lake is a graduate of a variety of professional schools including being an honor graduate of the Marine Corps Basic School, Infantry Officer Course, Amphibious Intelligence Officer Course, Amphibious Warfare School and Marine Corps Command and Staff College.  He was also the honor graduate from the Norwegian Army Staff College and the Norwegian Armed Forces Staff College as well as serving as a Commandant of the Marine Corps Fellow at the U.S. Department of State.

During his service, Dick Lake received a variety of U.S. and foreign military decorations to include the Secretary of the Navy’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Director of National Intelligence’s National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA’s Director’s Award, the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the National Clandestine Service’s Donovan Award, and the Defense Intelligence Director’s Award.