George Tenet was born on January 5, 1953. He received a Bachelor's degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in 1976 and a Master's degree from the School of International Affairs at Columbia University in 1978.
Tenet is married and has one son.
Tenet began his career working for the late Senator John Heinz, both as a legislative assistant covering national security and energy issues as legislative director. After working in this capacity for three years, Tenet joined the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1985. In the committee, he served as designee to the vice chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy. Tenet served as staff director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for over four years under the chairmanship of Senator David . Boren, managing the activities of a bipartisan staff of 40 professionals.