Today, DCSA hosted the family of John “Jack” Donnelly, the Director of the Defense Investigative Service (DIS) from 1988 to 1996, for a ceremony to rename the DCSA Award for Excellence in Counterintelligence to the Jack Donnelly Award for Excellence in Counterintelligence. This name change celebrates the 30th anniversary of the counterintelligence program he established in 1993.
In 1981, Mr. Donnelly entered the Senior Executive Service, as a Department of Defense counterintelligence expert at the Pentagon.  In 1988, Mr. Donnelly was appointed as the Director of the DIS, where he oversaw the security of cleared defense contractors and security background investigations of industry personnel. 
During his tenure at DIS, Mr. Donnelly transformed DIS’ relationship with cleared industry to promote partnership and mutual responsibility for preserving national security. Under Mr. Donnelly’s guidance, the DIS established a program that trained and sensitized investigators to counterintelligence red flags. Mr. Donnelly’s dedication to the national security mission led to the establishment of the agency’s counterintelligence mission in 1993.  
The Excellence in Counterintelligence Award is given to cleared companies who strive to deter, detect, and disrupt the theft of sensitive or classified U.S. information and technologies by foreign entities, and who seek to promote the uncompromised delivery of such technologies to the Department of Defense and other U.S. Government agencies.  DCSA recognizes only four of those companies for their outstanding excellence in counterintelligence.