Wayne H. Salzgaber was appointed acting director of the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL on October 31, 2016. Having served as deputy director during the previous year, Salzgaber took over the directorship to replace retiring former director Geoffrey S. Shank.
After earning his B.A. degree in criminology from Florida’s Saint Leo University, Salzgaber enlisted in the United States Coast Guard (USCG), serving in operational and intelligence units responsible for port security, law enforcement, humanitarian missions and antiterrorism operations. Between August 1993 and December 1997, he was a law enforcement instructor at the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Law Enforcement School in Yorkville, Virginia.
He then joined the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) as a special agent, remaining on active duty in USCG until 2001. He would return years later to serve, until 2010, as a commission officer in the USCG Reserves.
Salzgaber’s departure from the Guard coincided with an opportunity in October 2001 at the Department of the Treasury, where he joined its Office of Inspector General (OIG) as a special agent. In June 2003, he moved to the newly formed Office of Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During his seven-year tenure there, he helped establish the Office of Investigations and Special Investigations Division, for which he was named special agent in charge.
In August 2010, Salzgaber received an appointment to the Senior Executive Service as deputy assistant inspector general for investigations. In that position, he headed the DHS OIG’s Investigative Field Operations Division, which put him in charge of overseeing the agency’s investigative operations in 14 regional offices across the country. Then, in June 2012, he was made principal advisor to the Department of Homeland Security.
Three years later, in October 2015, Salzgaber was appointed deputy director of the U.S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL, a post he held until becoming acting director.
Salzgaber and his wife, Heather, have two daughters and one son.
-Danny Biederman
To Learn More:
Wayne Salzgaber: INTERPOL Interns Get First-Hand Experience (by Tom Temin, Federal Drive—audio interview)
