The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) is a consultative body of the Executive Office of the President of the United States (POTUS). It is a small, but crucial, component tasked with guiding POTUS on the U.S. intelligence community (USIC). This includes quality of analysis, structure, counterintelligence, and other matters. The PIAB can work with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), when approved by POTUS. These congressional bodies oversee the day-to-day operational plans and activities of USIC member agencies.
The first intelligence advisory board for a U.S. Commander in Chief was founded under President Eisenhower in January of 1956. Every president since then (with the exception of President Carter) has had such a board. The PIAB has access to all intelligence reporting and data within the IC. Publicly available information does not capture the focus of the PIAB under the current administration. However we assess that calls within U.S. academic circles for the creation of a new, nineteenth member of the USIC, an agency dedicated to open source intelligence, may be one issue that lands on the PIAB’s docket. [source]
1 History and Overview
1.1 PIAB: History and Overview.
The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board oversees the internal guidelines and direction of the USIC and has authority to review all policy matters within the community. The Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Attache’ system, and CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology all began as PIAB recommendations to POTUS, finalized by Congress.
A key component of the PIAB is the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB). The IOB oversees the IC’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives. This board consists of no more than four members of the PIAB. The IOB complements the oversight roles of the DNI, Inspectors General and General Counsels throughout the intelligence community. The IOB was created by President Ford following the Church Committee.
1.2 The First PIAB.
President Eisenhower established the first PIAB, called the “Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities,” in Jan. of 1956. Every U.S. President after (and including) President Kennedy has had a White House-level oversight body of U.S. intelligence activities. The only exception is President Carter. [source]
1.3 PIAB Roles and Missions.
Executive Order 13462, released on 29 February 2008, established President George W. Bush’s PIAB. The PIAB was tasked to “assess the quality, quantity, and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and estimates, and of counterintelligence and other intelligence activities, assess the adequacy of management, personnel and organization in the intelligence community, and review the performance of all agencies of the Federal government.” [source, source, source, source, source, source]
One of the PIAB’s more recent reports, produced under the Biden administration, focused on the controversial section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This provision of FISA authorises court-approved interception of phone calls from overseas to the U.S. Elected representatives on both sides of the aisle have hotly debated this activity. They express concern about civil liberties and constitutional rights. This began with the unauthorised public disclosure of sensitive NSA collection programs and the defection to Russia of Edward Snowden in 2013. Biden signed the reauthorization of the program in April 2024. [source, source, source, source]
Another example of the PIAB’s role is a 2012 assessment. In this assessment, the Board determined that after a decade focused on counterterrorism following the attacks of 9/11, both the CIA and IC had become too focused on tactical-level military operations and the military at the expense of more strategic intelligence. [source, source, source, source, source]
1.4 Sample Meeting Agenda
An example of a PFIAB meeting from 1982 is presented in a schedule that was released by the CIA in 2007. It documents a schedule including the board’s meeting with the Director and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. The group met to receive briefings on the “state of Agent Operations” and Attache Collection in the USSR. Also in attendance were the Chief of the Soviet-East European Division and an unnamed CIA operations officer. This meeting reflects the gravity of issues reviewed by the PIAB. [source]
1.5 PIAB supports analytic rigour
The PIAB’s role in overseeing the internal policy and governance structure of the IC extends as far as ensuring the analytic integrity of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs). The PIAB also ensures minority analytic perspectives are annotated on intelligence products. [source]
1.6 The PIAB in 2025.
The President announced new members of his President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) in February 2025. Former Congressman Nunes is the current Chairman of the PIAB and has expressed enthusiasm for reform in the intelligence community under President Trump. The majority of this new PIAB consists of senior leaders from the financial sector, some former congressmen, and former political appointees. [source, source, source]
Members of President Trump’s PIAB currently include:
- Mr. Devin Nunes (chair of the PIAB). Former Congressman Nunes served on the HPSCI during President Trump’s first term.
- Mr. Scott Glabe, previously worked at the America First Policy Institute. He also has prior experience in President Trump’s first term at DHS. He also worked for former Congressman Nunes and spent some time working for President G.W. Bush.
- Amaryllis Fox Kennedy has worked for e-commerce companies, including Twitter, and for Robert F. Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign. She is Kennedy’s daughter-in-law and was reportedly considered for the position of CIA Deputy Director. This was before national security experts resurfaced her past failure to submit her book to be approved before publication. In this 2019 “tell all” book she reviews her brief time at CIA. She has also been accused of playing loose with the facts in her book and engaging in conspiracy theories. [source, source, source, source, source]
- Mr. Brad Robert Wenstrup, a former Congressman from Ohio’s 2nd district, is also a current reservist with the U.S. Army with the rank of Colonel; he deployed to Iraq as a combat surgeon in 2005-2006.
- Mr. Wayne Berman has served as a senior advisor of global government affairs for Blackstone Financial. He also served as a senior advisor for the George H.W. Bush-Dick Cheney transition team in 2001.
- Mr. Reince Priebus is President Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff and former chair of the Republican National Committee. He also serves as a naval intelligence reserve officer.
- Mr. Robert O’Brien previously served as President Trump’s national security advisor. He was also the co-founder and chairman of American Global Strategies, LLC. He is also a former managing partner of Larson O’Brien LLP.
- Mr. Joshua Lobel was an Advisory Board Member of Red Cell Partners LLC. This firm specializes in technology, healthcare, cyber and national security.
- Mr. Sander R. Gerber is the former CEO of Hudson Bay Capital, a global investment firm. This company is a hedge fund that reportedly manages over ten billion dollars in assets.
- Ms. Katie Miller previously served as communications director and press secretary for former Vice President Mike Pence. Ms. Miller also has a history of working with Elon Musk.
- Mr. Jeremy Katz is a member of the board of advisors to the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He also served in the G.W. Bush Administration and for global investment firm D1.
- Mr. Thomas Ollis Hicks, Jr. is the founder and Chairman of Hicks Holdings, LLC, a Dallas-Based investment firm. Mr. Hicks was also the former owner of the Texas Rangers, a Major League baseball club. [source]
2 Potential Projects in 2025-2026
One issue the PIAB may consider exploring in the coming year(s) is in the area of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Though there continues to be a debate in academic and intelligence professional circles about whether or not OSINT should be considered a true “intelligence” discipline, and despite the lack of an agency dedicated to the field, there have been calls in the private and public sectors to establish an OSINT-focused member of the USIC. [source, source, source, source, source]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) latest OSINT strategy leaves open the possibility of a new OSINT agency while acknowledging its functional manager’s role to lead and guide the enterprise. The current strategy also emphasizes the importance of coordinating “open source data acquisition and expand sharing,” establishing an “integrated open source collection management, delivering new OSINT capabilities,” and further:
“develop the next generation OSINT workforce and tradecraft.”
3 Conclusion
The PIAB is a linchpin in POTUS-USIC relations with a mission to investigate, and provide recommendations to the White House on intelligence community issues. Since its creation in Jan of 1956, the PIAB has addressed some of the most complex and difficult national security issues the U.S. has faced. PIAB work rarely comes to public attention until it makes a recommendation to the President or an approved recommendation moves to Congress. Recent discussion in Congress and in American academic circles regarding the creation of an OSINT-focused agency is one issue that could draw the current PIAB’s attention in the years ahead.
* Additional Reading: For some unique insights into the PIAB up until the early 2000’s, consider the multi-author collection of essays edited by Glenn P. Hastedt, Controlling Intelligence (Routledge, 2004), part of the renowned Studies in Intelligence series.