Biodesign Directory Profile

Bio

Dr. Alfonso Sapia-Bosch is the Senior Director, National Defense Technology and adjunct professor at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. Sapia-Bosch has devoted the bulk of his active career focusing on foreign political, economic, military and cultural issues and has extensive experience and leadership as a national security policymaker, analyst, collector, operational manager, inspector, counterintelligence officer and coordinator.  He has considerable expertise on Latin America, and was president of the Latin American Advisory Group, Ltd., a management advisory firm that did business in Latin America.  He has been an adjunct professor of international studies at Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Prior to joining Biodesign in 2009, Sapia-Bosch served from 2002-2009 in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a mentor and guide to young officers abroad conducting operational activities. Prior to his most recent CIA experience, he was assigned to the Inspector General’s Office as an Inspector and participated in inspections of a number of facilities abroad as well as in the U.S.

Sapia-Bosch’s career began with service in the Army reserve as a strategic intelligence officer.  Sapia-Bosch first entered on duty in 1961 with the CIA as a Latin American analyst.  He was later appointed division chief supervising analysts working on Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Sapia-Bosch was appointed by National Security Advisor Judge William P. Clark to serve as senior staff officer on Latin America at the National Security Council during the Reagan administration.  In this position, he was directly engaged in the formulation of policy toward the region, supervised policy reviews, was a member of a small core group that directed, guided, and managed policy implementation, and dealt directly with senior Defense officials at the Pentagon and the U.S. Southern Command.  Responsibilities included briefing President Reagan, advising and coordinating with senior U.S. officials, and dealing with foreign diplomatic representatives.

When Judge Clark was appointed Secretary of the Interior, Sapia-Bosch returned to the CIA and entered the Directorate of Operations serving in Latin America in command positions.  As a senior member of the embassy country team, he supervised all intelligence gathering efforts, dealt with senior host country officials, including the president, and coordinated efforts with various U.S. military departments.

On a number of occasions, he was the senior American official in dealings with Latin American and European countries.  Dr. Sapia-Bosch also represented the Secretary of State in discussions in Latin America, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Ireland.

Dr. Sapia-Bosch has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and China; he has also traveled in India, and other countries in the Far East.  He was promoted into the Senior Intelligence Service in 1980.

He holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, speaks fluent Spanish and an understanding of several other languages.