ATSC Board of Advisors
Rear Admiral Paul Pluta (Retired)
Rear Admiral Pluta is the founder and managing member of Pluta Maritime LLC, an independent consulting firm headquartered in Fairfax, VA, USA. Admiral Pluta has over 40 years of experience in leadership and management positions in the U.S. Coast Guard, in the private sector, and within the international maritime community. He helps to steer and develop national and international policy and strategy by advising government leaders in the U.S., Canada, and Panama, as well as national and international commercial maritime executives.
From his retirement from the Coast Guard in July 2003 through January 2006, Admiral Pluta served as a senior executive and Member of the Board of Directors for a DC-based technology corporation, where he stood up a new operating division focused on the homeland security marketplace and helped to secure contracts for managing government training, developing a nationwide port security exercise program, conducting security plan reviews, and conducting homeland security and emergency response exercises.
Through his broad Coast Guard exposure, Admiral Pluta has both program management and operational experience in homeland security (including all modes of transportation), marine safety, marine environmental protection and counterterrorism intelligence. He served as the primary U.S. negotiator at the United Nations International Maritime Organization, where the global standards for maritime security were developed, and worked closely with the U.S. Congress on the domestic legislation that implemented the complementary U.S. standards. Admiral Pluta also served as the National Security Advisor and Senior Intelligence Officer to the Secretary of Transportation, responsible for departmental policy and oversight in the areas of intelligence and security.
In July 1996, Admiral Pluta achieved flag rank and was appointed Director, Office of Intelligence and Security in the Department of Transportation. He served as the Secretary of Transportation's national security advisor and principal liaison to the Intelligence Community. Admiral Pluta then served as the Commander of the Coast Guard's largest regional command, the Eighth Coast Guard District headquartered in New Orleans, and was then reassigned to Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC, as the Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety, Security and Environmental Protection, where he directed national and international programs for commercial vessel safety, port safety and security, waterways management, and marine environmental protection.
Admiral Pluta is a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He holds an M.S.E. degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan.