John McDonough

Vice President of Executive Protection

John McDonough joins the Sequoia Security Group (SSG) team bringing over 28 years of law enforcement, military and private sector experience in investigative and protection related services.

John retired from the United State Secret Service after a succesful 23 year career, the latter part of which he served as a senior manager. John’s career spanned across all mission areas of the Service, ranging from investigative to protection of the President and Vice President of the United States. John was an Assistant Special Agent in Charge on Vice President Joseph Biden’s Detail where he managed the facilities, access control, physical security and daily protective operations of Secret Service personnel, government vendors and contractors. John has held a variety of positions on protective and investigative assignments as well as at United States Secret Service Headquarters. He served with distinction on both the Presidential and Vice Presidential Protective Divisions and as a Team Leader on the Counter Assault Team.

From 2005-2008, John McDonough was the first U.S. Secret Service Resident Agent in Charge at Europol, The Hague, Netherlands. He quickly established the office and began high profile financial fraud investigations in conjunction with the Dutch High Tech Cyber-Crime Unit. Mr. McDonough was the sole USSS representative in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. He developed useful police contacts for exchanging investigative information throughout the European Union, and still enjoys today the many close friendships/professional contacts that were formed during his years at Europol. In addition to his investigative responsibilities, he coordinated all visits of Secret Service protectees to the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

He served as the Washington Field Office supervisor for “Operation Serenade”, President Reagan’s funeral, June/2004; was the VPPD security coordinator for 2009 Presidential/Vice Presidential Inauguration; lead the advance team which planned and executed Vice President Biden’s covert visits to Baghdad, Iraq on January 24th-25th, 2010 and July 3rd-5th, 2010 when he met with the President and Prime Minister of Iraq. John served as the Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Metro Area Fraud Task Force and ended his career as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Washington Field Office where he was responsible for all protective operations in the National Capital Region.

John has a bachelors degree in Education from Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts. He received an Officer’s commission in 1984 from the United States Marine Corp, Quantico, Virginia.