Thomas O’Connor serves as a Senior Consultant at The Soufan Group. He brings an extensive record of service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Thomas O’Connor
Senior Consultant
Special Agent (SA) Thomas O’Connor entered on duty with the FBI in 1997. SA O’Connor was assigned to work in the Washington Field Office on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. During that time, SA O’Connor worked both International and Domestic Terrorism cases. Prior to entering on duty with the FBI, SA O’Connor was a Police Officer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He worked for 15 years as a Municipal Officer leaving for the FBI at the rank of Detective Sergeant. As a Police Officer, SA O’Connor specialized in narcotics and violent gang investigations.
SA O’Connor was the program coordinator for investigations involving criminal activity / violence conducted by rightwing extremists in the Washington Field office area of responsibility. These investigations include neo-Nazi and other hate based groups and lone actors. SA O’Connor was Case Agent for both the Pentagon lone offender shooting and the Family Research Council lone offender shooting.
SA O’Connor was a Team Leader on the Washington Field Office, Evidence Response Team (WFO ERT). In this capacity, SA O’Connor has led forensic teams to multiple terrorist attacks around the globe. These deployments include the 1998 Nairobi Embassy bombing, 2 deployments to Kosovo in 1999 for war crimes investigations, 2000 USS Cole attack in Aden Yemen, SA O’Connor was a coordinator for evidence collection at the 9-11 attack on the US Pentagon, 2002 N17 bombing in Athens Greece, 2006 attack on the US Consulate in Karachi Pakistan, 6 deployments to Iraq and 3 deployments to Afghanistan. SA O’Connor worked at the crime scenes of both the 2018 Tree of life Synagogue shooting and the 2019 Virginia Beach government building shootings. SA O’Connor specialized in Post Blast Investigation and shooting reconstruction evidence recovery.
In 2005 SA O’Connor was assigned to investigate hostage takings in Iraq Theater of Operations. During this deployment, SA O’Connor was involved in the rescue of US Citizen Roy Hallums who had been held by extremists for 311 days.
SA O’Connor has provided instruction on both Domestic and International Terrorism issues across the United States and overseas. In 2004, SA O’Connor was awarded the Department of Justice “Instructor of the Year” award and was named as an FBI “Master Police Instructor” in 2010. SA O’Connor was certified as an Adjunct Faculty member for the FBI Academy.
SA O’Connor is a 2011 graduate of the George C. Marshall, European Center for Security Studies, Program on Terrorism and Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany where he continues to instruct as an adjunct professor.
SA O’Connor served as a member of the FBI Agents Associations (FBIAA) National Executive Board for three years, as the Vice President for seven years and President for 3 years, retiring from the FBI on September 11, 2019. This date was chosen to honor the FBI Agents who had passed due to the 9-11 attack and the illnesses related to that terrorist attack.
SA O’Connor is currently the Principle Consultant at FedSquared Consulting, providing instruction and consultation on a variety of Counterterrorism topics to both Government and private sector clients.
Our Leadership Team
- Ali SoufanChairman & CEO
- Max RoseVice Chairman
- Andre KhouryVice President - Strategic Partnerships
- Christopher O’LearySenior Vice President - Global Operations
- Susan SimVice President - Asia
- Hesham ElgamielSr Director of Quality Assurance and Business Development
- Ammar BarghoutyDirector of Cyber Consulting & Cyber Training
- Colin P. ClarkeDirector of Research
- Elijah FergusonDirector of Support Services
- Mohamed El ShaweshDirector of Digital Media
- Dave ShellenbergerDirector of Special Operations and Tactics
- Clara BroekaertMulti-Mission Analyst
- Jillian KeschnerAnalyst
- Joseph ShelziAnalyst
- Patricia O’SheaExecutive Assistant and Office Manager
- Nathan SalesSenior Advisor
- Richard BarrettSenior Advisor
- Dennis M. FitzpatrickSenior Legal Advisor
- Kenneth KatzmanSenior Advisor
- Zorka MartinovichSenior Hostage Negotiation Advisor
- Timothy ReddingSenior Business Continuity Management Advisor
- Thomas AlbrightCrisis Management & Preparedness Consultant
- Didier Bouakaze-KhanSenior Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Consultant
- Thomas O’ConnorSenior Consultant
- Audra DeWaltPublic Corruption Consultant
- Stephanie FoggettResearch Consultant
- Martin ReardonSenior Training Consultant
- Jeffrey RingelConsultant
- Michael SucciInfrastructure and Personnel Protection Consultant
- Melissa ThomasBehavioral Analysis Consultant
- Jason WarrenInfrastructure and Personnel Protection Consultant
- Brian A. AntolIntelligence Instructor
- Amjed KuriLaw Enforcement Instructor
- Eugene CaseyInstructor
- William CorbettInstructor
- Rita AbboudExpert Interpreter & Translator
- Rita El KhouryExpert Interpreter & Translator
- Cosette N. SalibaExpert Interpreter & Translator