John Waddell

Director of Operations

John Waddell is the Director of Operations of the Soufan Group LLC. He is a retired U.S. Marine with a unique diversity of experience. He spent a large portion of his 20-year USMC career posted abroad with repeated permanent assignments at U.S. embassies in Europe, Africa, Asia, and in the Gulf region, working within the U.S. Department of State diplomatic security section.

Mr. Waddell's responsibilities encompassed a variety of asset protection and leadership functions including operative command of the largest Marine detachment in the Middle East, access control, physical security, and contingency planning and emergency operations for official American diplomatic assets - both embassies and personnel, safeguarding of classified materials, and governmental level Executive Protection.

The balance of his military career was exclusively within various combat arms fields as both an operative and instructor.

Following his retirement from the military in 2006, Mr. Waddell has worked in Qatar on strategic governmental level projects involving critical infrastructure security evaluations and national level risk management. His activities have focused primarily within the energy and maritime sectors, converging on international standards compliance and governance issues.

Organizational security evaluation, restructure and implementation projects have been a principle function during his private sector career.

Mr. Waddell is an American Society of Industrial Security member and Certified Protection Specialist and is also an avid marathoner and proficient technical mountaineer, having climbed various peaks including 22,800ft Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina).