OTTAWA - A career bureaucrat known for cool-headed thinking is the new boss of Canada's spy agency.
Richard Fadden, currently deputy immigration minister, becomes director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on June 27.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Fadden's strong leadership qualities and sound judgment make him well-suited to the task of head spymaster.
"Richard Fadden brings to this position a unique combination of legal expertise and extensive experience in the security and intelligence field," Harper said in a statement.
Fadden, 57, has spent more than three decades in the federal public service with various departments including Foreign Affairs, the Auditor General and the Privy Council Office.
"He's a consummate professional," said David Zussman, who crossed paths with him at the PCO, the nerve centre of the bureaucracy.
"I've just always been impressed with his professionalism and the way in which he systematically goes about looking at a file."
The fluently bilingual Fadden has long had an interest in security intelligence matters, said Zussman, the Jarislowsky chair in public sector management at the University of Ottawa. "So the transition for him into the new job shouldn't be a very difficult one."
"I like to see appointments where people have the right experiences and skill-sets for it," Zussman said. "Because these are tough jobs to learn without much background."
Fadden has seen his share of crises.
He was deputy clerk of the Privy Council as well as security and intelligence co-ordinator during the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington.
In 2002 he became president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, handling a breakout of mad cow disease that rocked Canadian meat producers.
Last year Fadden made waves by ordering employees at Citizenship and Immigration to shut off their BlackBerry communication devices between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. -- an almost unthinkable act among information-addicted public servants.
The idea was to reduce stress among harried workers.
Fadden takes over from Jim Judd, another longtime bureaucrat who recently announced his retirement after more than four years as CSIS director.
CSIS, created out of the ashes of the scandal-ridden RCMP Security Service, marks its 25th anniversary this fall.
Fadden is just the latest spy boss who comes from outside the intelligence service.
"It's a new agency in any case," Zussman said, "and I suspect in time there will be someone in charge of CSIS who started their career there. But that'll be a few more years."
