During a thirty year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, Brian served in shipboard and shore-based operational and support positions that included command at sea, joint tours, and Project Officer or Branch Chief for a wide variety of efforts in research, tactics, and strategy.

He led teams and personally drafted numerous doctrine publications on search and rescue, law enforcement, security and coastal warfare. He developed a comprehensive and flexible 30 year Capital Asset Management Plan enabling whole fleet planning for the U.S. Coast Guard.

At the time of his retirement from the Coast Guard as Chief of Cutter Forces, he was the senior billeted cutterman responsible for platform management and fleet policies governing a fleet of 280 ships and a community of 8,000 cuttermen worldwide.

Brian holds a B.S. in Marine Science from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy and an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and Operations Research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was awarded a Certificate of Public Leadership from The Brookings Institution.

He is a retired Coast Guard Captain (06) with 26 years of decorated rotary aviation and 38 years of total service. He was a career pilot and the Deputy Chief of Aviation Forces managing the cost, schedule and performance of 10 major aviation programs, all in different lifecycle stages. He provided oversight to 30 subordinate aviation commands, 200 aircraft, $400M of facilities and a workforce of over 4,900 people with an annual program value of $4.5B in the employment of 114,000 flight hours in all weather.

Matt has a B.A. in Asian Studies and an M.S. in Quality Systems Management. He is an Instructor Pilot, Flight Examiner and Safety Accident Investigator.

Joseph is both an experienced business leader and a technological innovator working across diverse industries. He excels at using technology to bring ideas to market and has proven this through projects ranging from the digitalization of processes in the healthcare sector in the Netherlands to overhauling plagiarism detection in higher education to food industry point of sales software.

He is currently helping with software development and IT consulting for rapidly growing startups with $10M in revenue and 100% year-over-year growth, and several large companies across diverse sectors. Joseph also serves in an executive capacity helping to shape the digital strategy of two nonprofits (NABU and Epic Education Foundation).

He has a broad range of experience in the field of electronics, telecommunications and computer engineering, including radar and computer systems design, and multi-disciplinary IT areas (command, control, communications and computer systems supporting multi-missions).

Kyle holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Technology, and a Master’s in Information Technology Management. He graduated from National Defense University with a Master of Science in Government Information Leadership with a concentration in weapons of Mass Destruction and a Certificate in Chief Information Officer. He completed Course Study for an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Sloan School of Management, and is a graduate of U.S. Cyber Command’s Joint Advanced Cyber Warfare Course.

Following a distinguished 25-year career, Paul retired from the U.S. Coast Guard as a senior officer to assist private and public organizations with navigating Federal regulatory safety and security requirements for ships, facilities, and waterways. Paul has served as the Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection with a two-state AOR, lead the federal review for America’s first operational offshore wind energy project, served as a United Nations consultant to 39 nations regarding international shipping conventions, and was lead author for an International Maritime Organization manual regarding contingency planning.

In addition to serving as a pollution response subject matter expert, Paul recently completed the creation of the Navigation Safety Risk Assessments for Ørsted’s 1.1 gigawatt Ocean Wind Farm off the coast of New Jersey and for the $3.8B Hampton Roads Bridge and Tunnel Expansion project.

Paul holds a Bachelors’ degree from The United States Coast Guard Academy, a Master’s degree from Tufts University, is a qualified NIMS Incident Command System Incident Commander, and a licensed Merchant Marine captain.

John retired after a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving in the Office of Shore Forces and other shore-based operational positions that included counter-terrorism, search and rescue, maritime security and safety, and emergency management. 



He commanded a law enforcement detachment tasked with counter-drug operations in the Pacific Ocean and deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2003, ensuring waterway stability and security in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. 

His final assignment was Chief of Boat Forces at Coast Guard Atlantic Area, where he was the senior expert responsible for more than 250 boat force units. He led an effort to update their staffing and to acquire the best vessels for each unit’s mission areas.

Currently he serves in Production Control at Newport News shipyard troubleshooting critical-path pop-up challenges.   


John holds a B.S. in Management degree from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy and an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

Sue Ellen has over 20 years supporting the Scientific and Engineering communities performing research, development, testing, evaluation, and strategic-level analysis. She has over 15 years explicitly supporting U.S. Navy, Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Coalition (NATO) programs.

As a Research Analyst assigned to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Science & Technology Division she conducted analysis and evaluation of secure information technologies establishing policies and protocols for new capabilities. Sue Ellen was detailed to DHS as the Deputy Project Manager for the Threat Vulnerability & Threat Assessment and Analysis (TVTA) Portfolio assessing new requirements to support the strategic direction of the TVTA Portfolio as well as the Weapons of Mass Destruction and Incident Management (WMD-IM) division.
SPAWAR assigned her as Lead for enforcement of processes and policy updates to the Navy’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Business System.

Sue Ellen  has extensive experience writing classified requirements, policies, and procedures in direct support of the warfighter. She was assigned as the Navy’s NATO Coalition Program Liaison identifying, analyzing, and recommending crossover technologies for interconnectivity amongst Coalition Forces.
CREDENTIALS:
 B.S. in Computer Science; and
 Previously certified as a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)

Bruce crafted major portions of the U.S. Coast Guard’s human resource system, and brings scientific and analytical approaches from his Doctorate in Physical Oceanography. He led the service’s military assignment, career management, and recruiting operations; capping a 30-year military career. He reshaped the workforce through enlisted rating consolidations, officer specialty management systems, and reformed recruiting operations across the United States. He was recognized by the Secretary of Homeland Security for his work in  reshaping recruiting. Bruce later served as a senior policy advisor in the $4B Coast Guard mission support enterprise, and was the primary author of the 2016 Human Capital Strategy. He deployed and applied the mission support business model in new areas, crafted policy for engineering technical authority, and guided senior leadership through strategic plan development. Bruce also guided a team that developed criteria for U.S. Navy System Engineering Technical Reviews.
In addition to his deep experience in workforce systems, Bruce holds a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. His scientific work centered on the structure of turbulence near the seabed, with application to the atmospheric boundary layer. He also published several peer-reviewed papers on the dynamics of circulation in Lake Superior.

Victoria began her career in Boston in the field of International banking and quickly moved into the legal field after attending Bentley College’s Paralegal Program. At Bingham, Dana & Gould (now Bingham McCutchen), she worked in Litigation for a Senior Partner on Antitrust cases; performing research, writing drafts and smoothing documents. In this position she was also responsible for maintaining confidential information for those Massachusetts attorneys being considered for judgeships.

After moving to Washington, D.C. to work as an Administrative Assistant/Paralegal for a large NH corporation, she was tasked with research projects in the hazardous waste field. She wrote many briefs for the company and reported on the Love Canal hearings on Capitol Hill. While in D.C. Victoria also worked as a paralegal for Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman and Steptoe & Johnson. She subsequently received a Judicial Appointment to the position of Administrative Assistant to Judge June Green in the U.S. District Court.

On moving to Maine, she pursued other interests including partnering in a British import business, and holding positions in Business Development, Sales and Marketing in the media fields of Internet, radio and print. For the past  four years, Victoria has been Executive Assistant to Brian Perkins, President of Dirigo Strategies, LLC.

Robert I. Desourdis, Solutions Architect Master and Founder and CEO of Desourdis Collaboration LLC (DCLLC), spent decades of his career as a technology executive and solutions architect before leaving the government contracting space to develop DCLLC. Over the course of his time in industry, he became alarmingly aware of challenges the Government faces – particularly during catastrophic security events — in which preplanned, exercised, reliable and consistent collaboration between parties simply did not exist. This realization led him to spearhead an initiative of cross-functional/discipline collaboration to deliver innovative technology and system solutions. He sees the need for an augmented human collaboration capability to create innovative solutions to complex technological problems for which there is no existing “cookie-cutter” solution makes him an asset to both local and national agencies. His expertise, within which he has authored and co-authored 17 books, includes human collaboration, command and control, emergency, public safety, and ionospheric communications. Robert is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Master of Science in Technology and Policy. He also holds a Master of Science, Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Science and Mathematics from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

Philip has been involved in the renewable energy industry since 2011 firstly as General Manager and Operations Director of a Dutch-based ship management company and now as a consultant in North America. Philip provided operational and commercial management to a fleet of crew transfer vessels that operated on both construction and O&M projects in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Denmark working both from base ports and accommodation vessels. Philip also provided operational and commercial management for a diving support vessel providing services to cable repair and unexploded ordnance removal contractors. Before leaving Europe, Philip initiated a joint venture operations and maintenance company that was to provide topside and subsea inspection and maintenance to wind farm and oil and gas clients. Philip was also a member of the Renewable Energy Working Group of IMCA and the Safety Forum of the Workboat Association with a focus on improving safety and operations in the renewable energy industry

Philip is a maritime problem solver with 30 years of experience in onboard ship operations and onshore ship management, auditing, ship survey, inspection, S&P and regulatory affairs within the merchant navy and offshore oil, gas and renewable energy sectors.

His consultancy, Wyndward Maritime, assists clients with a variety of projects including registering ships within the Canadian registry, developing and implementing safety management and planned maintenance systems, and performing safety and security audits. He also conducts a variety of research and investigations and is acting as owner’s representative for reviewing the maritime logistics for an onshore wind farm that will be constructed in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Philip is a board member of the St Michaels University School Alumni Association and the British Columbia Branch of the Nautical Institute. Philip is certified as a Master Mariner by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency of the United Kingdom and holds an MSc. In Marine Policy from the University of Wales. Philip has spoken at conferences and written for trade journals such as Western Mariner, BC Shipping News, Offshore Wind Journal and Offshore Shipping Journal on the topics of offshore wind, safety and marine operations.