Donna A Bucella

Donna A. Bucella is the president of Compliance for Guidepost Solutions and leads its Washington, D.C. office. She was previously the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida (Presidentially appointed and U.S. Senate confirmed) and has extensive senior leadership experience with the U.S. government including the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Defense, and with three publicly-traded companies. She joined Guidepost Solutions in December 2015. She is known and highly respected both inside and outside the government as the go-to person who works exceptionally well with everyone in providing high-quality advice, support, candor and real cost-effective solutions to corporations, governments and anyone who needs her expertise. Previously, in 2013, Ms. Bucella was named the Senior Vice President, Risk and Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer for Education Management Corporation, a $1.9 billion provider of post-secondary education with 110 campuses, more than 90,000 students and approximately 20,000 employees. She is credited with creating an independent compliance department which reported to the Board of Directors, vastly improving and expanding its corporate compliance and internal investigations programs, and developing industry leading ethics and compliance training. Ms. Bucella also practiced law with Foley & Lardner LLP and Steel, Hector and Davis LLP in the areas of complex business litigation, white collar defense, internal corporate investigations, and compliance. She also served as senior vice president at Perot Systems Government Services, and as senior vice president at Bank of America where she led business continuity and crisis management globally. In addition to her service as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Ms. Bucella also served as a supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Director of the Office of Legal Education for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Director of the Executive Office for the United States Attorneys, Department of Justice. Especially noteworthy, Ms. Bucella was selected by the President of the United States and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to become the first Director of the Terrorist Screening Center which she created from inception and led it to full operational capacity as it exists today. She also served as Assistant Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where she created the Office of Intelligence and Investigative Liaison; and after 9/11, she joined the Transportation Security Administration as the first Southeast Area Director responsible for the operations of 80 federalized airports. Ms. Bucella also retired at the rank of Colonel from the U.S. Army Reserves. Throughout her career, Ms. Bucella has been the recipient of numerous awards and decorations to include the Attorney General Exceptional Service Award for her work on the investigation of the Oklahoma City Bombing, the highest award of the Department of Justice and the Legion of Merit. She is a frequent speaker and instructor on topics related to investigations, compliance, intelligence and terrorism.