Education
He graduated from Saint Francis College in Brooklyn with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting, and subsequently received his Master of Business Administration in taxation from Saint John"s University in Jamaica, Queens.
He graduated from Saint Francis College in Brooklyn with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting, and subsequently received his Master of Business Administration in taxation from Saint John"s University in Jamaica, Queens.
He was replaced one week before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Born in Woodside, Queens, New New York He is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed by the state of New New York
Pickard began his career as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 13, 1975, and after a period of training, he was initially assigned to the New York City field office.
In April 1979, Pickard was transferred to the Washington, District of Columbia, field office, where he worked in an undercover capacity on the case code-named "ABSCAM." In July 1980, Pickard was promoted to Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters, serving in the Inspection and Criminal Investigative Divisions. In October 1984, Pickard reported to the New York City field office as a supervisor in the White-Collar Crime Section and later was appointed to be the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for all White-Collar Crime investigations and violent crime matters in New New York
In 1989, Pickard was selected for the Federal Bureau of Investigation"s Senior Executive Service and was transferred to Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters, where he oversaw the Federal Bureau of Investigation"s finance operations and subsequently its personnel operations. In 1993, Pickard was transferred to the New York City Office once again, to serve as the Special Agent in Charge of the National Security Division, supervising such matters as the trials of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing defendants, the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman and his co-conspirators, the Manila Air conviction of Ramzi Yousef and his associates, and the July 1996, Trans World Airlines Flight 800 explosion.
On September 10, 1996, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh named Pickard to the position of Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington field office.
During his tenure there, Pickard supervised such matters as the investigation and arrest of Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Earl Pitts for espionage and the capture of convicted Central Intelligence Agency killer Mir Amir Kansi. On February 2, 1998, Pickard assumed the position of Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation"s Criminal Investigative Division at Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters. On November 1, 1999, Pickard was appointed Deputy Director, the number two position at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On June 25, 2001, Pickard was appointed Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Among other disruptions of O"Neill"s career was a leak to The New York Times.
In the Public Broadcasting Service Frontline documentary “The Manitoba Who Knew.” O"Neill"s significant other said O"Neill suspected Pickard might have leaked information to the Times, but when confronted Pickard assured O"Neill that he had not. The Times story was seen as a final signal by O"Neill that he should leave the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and O"Neill died weeks later in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, where he had taken a position as chief of security.