Biography

Mr. Paul Kolbe is a Senior Fellow and the former Director of the Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center. 

Paul served for 25 years in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations in a variety of foreign and domestic roles, including as Chief of Station, Chief/Central Eurasia Division, and Balkans Group Chief. His overseas assignments included operational and leadership roles in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, and Central Europe. He was a member of the Senior Intelligence Service and is a recipient of the Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.

Following his CIA career, Kolbe was Director for Intelligence and Analysis at BP, where he built an enterprise-wide intelligence capability focused on geo-political threats, strategic cyber threats, and support to commercial operations. Clients included C-suite leadership, global business units, security networks, and legal teams. Kolbe is a Senior Advisor to the Martin + Crumpton Group and Spycraft Entertainment.

In September 2023, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas named Kolbe to the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group to provide advice and perspectives on intelligence and national security efforts to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the Office of Counterterrorism Coordinator.

He is also a member of the Cipher Brief network of experts and is an alumnus of Michigan State University’s James Madison College, where he studied International Relations. Kolbe has been married to Maureen Farrell Kolbe for 32 years and is a proud father of 3 great children, all of whom desperately resist his attempts at humor.

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Photo of Paul Kolbe speaking at an Intelligence Project event.

Benn Craig/Belfer Center

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Paul Kolbe Heads Center’s Intelligence Project

| Fall/Winter 2019-2020

The Belfer Center is pleased to welcome Paul Kolbe as the Center’s new Intelligence Project Director. Kolbe will build on the work of the former director Rolf Mowatt-Larssen to advance policy-relevant knowledge in intelligence areas and help prepare future leaders in the field. The Intelligence Project is home to an elite roster of former senior intelligence officials and hosts rising stars from intelligence and national security organizations around the world.

Ship engineer Wim Giabeler, right, and deckhand Gerard Bakulikira, left, wear Romware COVID Radius digital bracelets as they work on deck of a tugboat in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. The Romware ONE bracelet will allow employees to resume work safely as the bracelet monitors physical distance and traces contacts.

(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

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