Secret Service chief Joseph Clancy will retire next month

Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The head of the United States Secret Service will retire next month after more than two years in the top White House security post, the agency said Tuesday.

The Secret Service announced the retirement of Director Joseph P. Clancy on Tuesday and said he will officially leave the position on March 4. He joined the Secret Service in 1984 in the agency's Philadelphia field office.

Clancy, 60, was lured out of the private sector more than two years ago and asked to become the agency's 24th director -- on the heels of several embarrassing high-profile scandals involving Secret Service agents.

"He successfully led the men and women of the Secret Service during the most complex and demanding protective operations in the agency's 151-year history," the agency said in a statement Tuesday. "On his watch, Mr. Clancy flawlessly executed ten National Special Security Events as well as navigating the agency through the dynamic pace of the 2016 presidential campaign."

Clancy managed President Barack Obama's protective detail between 2009 and his first retirement in 2011. He then joined Comcast in Philadelphia as a security official before he was asked by Obama to return and lead the agency in October 2014.

The former West Point cadet replaced Julia Pierson, the first female Secret Service chief, after she became embroiled in an incident in September 2014 that saw a man scale the White House fence and make it all the way inside one of its entrances before he was stopped by agents.

Clancy was tasked with rehabilitating the agency's image after the intrusion, as well as other embarrassments -- including the revelation that Secret Service agents solicited prostitutes while on a presidential trip to South America in 2012.

"Due to his calm and professional manner and approach to problem solving, he's just done a tremendous job for the department. It was an incredibly difficult couple of years," former Secret Service director Ralph Basham said. "Not to say they don't have issues remaining, but I think he's put the organization on a good path to getting better."

Clancy's retirement gives President Donald Trump an opportunity to appoint his own protection chief. The Secret Service, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for the security of the president, vice president and their families.

It's unknown who might replace Clancy, but some potential candidates are Secret Service Chief Operating Officer George Mulligan, former assistant director Mickey Nelson and Deputy Director William Callahan.