Frances M. "Fran" Fragos Townsend (born December 28, 1961) is an American lawyer and business executive who served as Homeland Security Advisor to United States President George W. Bush from 2004 to 2007, and was formerly the executive vice president for corporate affairs, corporate secretary, and compliance chief officer for Activision Blizzard, until September 2022, due to Microsoft acquiring Blizzard for $75 billion.

[10] Frances Fragos married lawyer John Michael Townsend on October 8, 1994, in an Episcopal ceremony at Manhattan's Church of the Incarnation.

[7] With a self-professed "triple type-A" personality,[11] Townsend has been described as having a characteristic bluntness and a "sometimes salty, streetwise style"[12] that once led her coworkers to nickname her "The Hurricane".

[9] During the Clinton administration, Townsend served in a series of positions at the Justice Department, eventually working as intelligence policy counsel for Attorney General Janet Reno.

She was one of Reno's key advisers, acting as a "back channel" between the attorney general and FBI Special Agent John P. O'Neill, who was also her friend.

While she was on maternity leave during the September 11 attacks in 2001, Townsend assisted the Coast Guard in updating intelligence legislation to switch the branch's priority from drug smuggling to the vulnerability of U.S.

[14] Townsend served as the public face of the Bush administration while it was under criticism for allegedly overreacting to dated intelligence[12] in its decision to raise terrorist threat levels during an election season.

Townsend was tapped to implement broad changes in the intelligence community recommended by a presidential commission headed by former Senator Chuck Robb and U.S. District Judge Laurence Silberman.

[14] Townsend then served in the United States Department of Justice, including a stint as Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy in the George W. Bush administration.

[21][26] She is a trustee of the Atlantic Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, the McCain Institute, and the New York City Police Foundation.

[21][27] In July 2022, Townsend helped found a group of U.S. business and policy leaders who share the goal of constructively engaging with China in order to improve U.S.–China relations.