Chad Menster, Deputy Director for the Office of Criminal Investigations

 

Chad Menster
Deputy Director
Office of Criminal Investigations
Office of Inspections and Investigations
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

 

 

Chad Menster is the Deputy Director for the Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), serving as the principal advisor to the Assistant Commissioner for Criminal Investigations.

As second-in-command, Mr. Menster provides executive-level leadership and technical direction in advancing OCI's mission to protect public health. He oversees OCI's six field offices, headquarters, and overseas offices, which collectively comprise nearly the entire OCI workforce. Functional areas under his management include FDA center-level liaison, international operations, intelligence, training, cybercrime, digital forensics, technical surveillance, and virtually all FDA criminal investigations.

Mr. Menster brings well-rounded experience across OCI, having begun his FDA career as a special agent in the Kansas City Field Office in 2008 before transitioning to the Office of Internal Affairs (OIA). He has since served in senior leadership roles for the Miami Field Office, OIA, and Headquarters.

With 30 years of law enforcement experience, Mr. Menster has served 26 years as a federal agent, including nearly a decade with the United States Secret Service. Prior to his federal career, he served as a Deputy Sheriff in Iowa.

Mr. Menster is a 2024 graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Education, Emerging Leaders Program and a 2021 graduate of the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute, Leadership for a Democratic Society Program. He holds a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University, where he played baseball.