Richard (Dick) J Kerr, an American citizen, was born in 1935 and has a BA in history from the University of Oregon.

He joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1960, working as a Soviet military analyst during the 1962/63 Cuban missile crisis. He then served in several positions following Soviet military forces and subsequently was assigned as the CIA representative to the Commander-in-Chief US Pacific Command. He headed a task force planning for a new technical collection system and then served as the deputy and chairman of the committee responsible for imagery requirements and exploitation. He was the Executive Officer of the Intelligence Community Staff in the mid 1970’s.

From 1976 to 1982 Mr Kerr was the Director or deputy director of several analytic offices within the Directorate of Intelligence. These included the office responsible for worldwide political analysis, the office of the East Asia analysis, and the office that produced current intelligence products including the daily briefing book for the President of the US.

Mr Kerr continued his career in the Directorate of Intelligence serving as Associate Director and Director from 1982 until 1988. He was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1989 until 1992, serving briefly as Acting Director of Central Intelligence.

After leaving the CIA in early 1992, Mr Kerr continued to work on panels and boards of several security agencies. He also serves on boards in the private sector.

Dick Kerr was formally appointed to the Independent Monitoring Commission by the British and Irish Governments on 7 January 2004.