Admiral Thad Allen retired in 2010 as the 23rd Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. He previously served as the James Tyler Chair of Distinguished Leadership at the Coast Guard Academy and as Executive Vice President and Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton. He serves as Chair of NASA’s Space Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board. He previously served on the Board of the Council of Foreign Relations, the Board of Visitors to the National Intelligence University, and the Comptroller General’s Advisory Committee.
Previously, Admiral Allen led the unified federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. He also oversaw Coast Guard responses to the 9/11 attacks, the Haitian Earthquake, and a number of other major Coast Guard operations in the course of his career. He is an Emeritus Board Member of the Coast Guard Foundation and the Partnership for Public Service.
He is a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration. A 1971 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, he holds master’s degrees from The George Washington University and the MIT Sloan School. He has been awarded six honorary doctorate degrees.