Marine Lt. Gen. James Adams officially took the helm of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on Friday during an assumption of directorship ceremony.
President Donald Trump nominated Adams, and the Senate confirmed him last month.
He now oversees a workforce of about 16,500 people responsible for providing intelligence support across the Department of Defense – rebranded as the Department of War by the Trump administration.
According to his official military biography, Adams previously served as the Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for programs and resources, a role overseeing the service’s financial requirements. In that position, Adams led the Marine Corps through two clean financial audits, marking the first and only time a U.S. military branch has achieved that milestone.
Adams’ biography does not specify a background in intelligence.
During the ceremony, Adams outlined his priorities as director, including evolving the agency to meet the demands of modern warfare.
Those efforts include modernizing data systems, improving information sharing through a common intelligence feed, and expanding the use of artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and open-source analysis to accelerate insight generation and support faster decision-making.
But technology alone does not create advantage, Adams said.
“Advantage is created when skilled professionals apply judgment, experience, and tradecraft to information, delivering clarity to leaders making consequential decisions,” Adams said.
He also added that developing and empowering the agency’s workforce would be a priority.
“It is my responsibility, our responsibility, to develop and empower our workforce to remove obstacles that detract from mission accomplishment and ensure every analyst, operator, technologist, and support professional can focus on what matters most – delivering insight, credible warning, and operational capability to the combatant commands, the services, and policymakers on time and on target,” Adams said.