Former Administrator,
Drug Enforcement Administration
Karen Tandy has more than 40 years of leadership experience in the public and private sectors with executive board experience serving on for-profit and nonprofit boards. She is the principal of KPT Consulting LLC, a government affairs consulting firm in the Washington, DC area.
Ms. Tandy currently is Vice Chair of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, appointed during the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations. She also is a member of public sector advisory boards including Verizon Frontline’s First Responder Advisory Council and Roman Health. Ms. Tandy chairs the board of trustees for the nonpartisan Jewish Policy Center, focusing on the analysis of foreign and domestic policies. She previously chaired the boards of directors for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
In her private consulting practice, Ms. Tandy advises registrants and private companies on business strategy relating to public safety and DEA regulatory compliance. She was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to serve as a Commissioner on the bipartisan 2021-22 Congressional Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking. Ms. Tandy also served as an executive for a tele-health firm dedicated to on-line treatment and recovery services for opioid and other substance use disorders.
In the private sector, Ms. Tandy was Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at Motorola Solutions. In that capacity, she was Motorola’s top public policy spokesperson on global telecom policy, directed country management and regulatory compliance in more than 70 countries and chaired Motorola’s charitable foundation and political action committee.
During her public service, Ms. Tandy was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate as Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), where she managed a $2.2 billion budget and led more than 10,000 employees in more than 300 offices around the world.
Under Ms. Tandy’s transformative leadership, DEA restored its financial investigation priorities, restructured diversion, expanded its international partnerships and became a member of the intelligence community. These measures resulted in a 500% year-over-year increase in drug asset seizures exceeding a total of $3 billion annually, an 80% increase in significant drug trafficking organizations dismantled, a 23% reduction in teen drug use and the lowest level of workplace drug use in almost twenty years. During Ms. Tandy’s leadership, for the first time DEA ranked in the top 20 out of 222 federal agencies as one of the best agencies to work for in the federal government.
Prior to her leadership of DEA, Ms. Tandy was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General of the U. S. Department of Justice in both the Clinton and Bush Administrations where she had policy oversight for anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, counter-narcotics and asset forfeiture in addition to DEA regulatory oversight. She also held the office of Executive Director of the nationwide Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces leading more than two thousand law enforcement agents and federal prosecutors in the disruption and dismantlement of international criminal drug enterprises. In addition, Ms. Tandy served for more than 15 years as a federal prosecutor in the U. S. Attorney’s Offices in the Eastern District of Virginia and Western District of Washington.
She resides in Northern Virginia and is admitted to the State Bars of Texas and Virginia.
www.LinkedIn.com/KarenTandy
