Michael Sheehan was born on 10 February 1955 in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA. He was married to Sita Graham Vasan and Maria Eitel. He died on 30 July 2018 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
In 1998, as State Department's chief of counter-terrorism, he urged actions against Ossama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and his memos were not taken seriously enough.