About Us

Leadership

John H. Austin Jr. advises law firms, institutional investors, corporations, and senior executives on complex risk decisions in high-stakes commercial, transactional, and cross-border environments.

Federal and Investigative Foundation

iMask’s analytical approach is grounded in Mr. Austin’s more than 25 years of federal investigative and leadership experience. A decorated former agent and Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration, he directed complex domestic and international investigations and operations involving transnational criminal networks, corporate corruption, financial crime, and global trafficking organizations with significant national security implications.

Policy and Academic Leadership

Mr. Austin is an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, where he designs and teaches graduate-level coursework in Open-Source Intelligence. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former Executive in Residence at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and a participant in national security roundtables convened by the Stimson Center.

Working with fellow members of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Austin helped brief the leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on reducing institutional barriers and strengthening collaboration across the Intelligence Community. He has also briefed a bipartisan group of senior congressional staff on the national security and policy implications of fentanyl trafficking.

Education

Mr. Austin holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an M.A. in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a B.A. from Temple University.