Olli Heinonen

Olli Heinonen

Senior Advisor on Science and Nonproliferation, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Former Deputy Director General of the IAEA

Olli Heinonen is a Senior Advisor on Science and Nonproliferation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Washington, DC. Before joining in 2016 the FDD Olli Heinonen was a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center. Until 2010 he served 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Heinonen spent the last five years as Deputy Director General of the IAEA, and Head of its Department of Safeguards. He led the Agency's efforts to identify and dismantle nuclear proliferation networks, including the one led by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, and he oversaw its efforts to monitor and contain Iran's nuclear program. Heinonen led teams of international investigators to examine nuclear programs of concern around the world. He inspected nuclear facilities in South Africa, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere, seeking to ensure that nuclear materials were not diverted for military purposes. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on Iran's and North Korea’s nuclear programs. He led the Agency's efforts in recent years to implement an analytical culture to guide and complement traditional verification activities.

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