John Collingwood

John Collingwood is Bank of America's chief lobbyist. Prior to its merger with BofA, he was a top lobbyist at MBNA. Before joining MBNA, he was the longtime head of congressional and public affairs for the FBI. Mr. Collingwood, 54, worked under four directors during 22 years at FBI Headquarters. Beginning in the then-Legal Counsel Division in legal research, he later headed the civil litigation program. In 1987, he became a special assistant to the Director where he worked on a wide variety of issues, including the class action litigation involving FBI hiring and promotion policies. He was appointed Inspector in Charge of the Congressional Affairs Office and later assumed responsibility for the combined Office of Public and Congressional Affairs. In 1997, he was designated Assistant Director in charge of the new public and congressional division, which now included the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts program. Prior to coming to FBI Headquarters, Mr. Collingwood was assigned to the Detroit and Portland, Ore., field offices as an investigator. As chief spokesman and head of the congressional liaison program, Mr. Collingwood led the effort to keep Congress informed on the full range of FBI issues and initiatives, including, over the years: expansion of the FBI overseas; class action personnel lawsuits that changed the face of the FBI; rebuilding the FBI's information infrastructure; the need to ensure continued, lawful access to criminal and terrorism communications in major cases; and, most recently, the reorganization and re-engineering of the FBI in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He also helped shape with Congressional committees critical legislation for law enforcement in the areas of terrorism, information technologies, intellectual property, pay reform and health care enforcement. "John has been invaluable to me over the past year as we've tackled a number of critically important initiatives, most importantly reorganization and re-engineering. He has given me wise counsel during one of the most important periods in the FBI's history. He has been a valued friend. It's a tremendous understatement to say that he will be sorely missed," Mueller said.