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Paul J. Pluta Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
Rear Admiral Pluta is an independent maritime consultant, headquartered in Fairfax, VA, USA. RADM Pluta has over 39 years of experience in leadership and management positions in the U.S. Coast Guard, at UNITECH, and in the international community. A sample of his worldwide client base includes BIMCO, the Panama Canal Authority, and the Institute for Defense Analyses. RADM Pluta serves as the U.S. Liaison Officer for BIMCO, a global shipping organization serving two thirds of the world’s ship owners and operators. He also serves as a Member of the Maritime Navigation Advisory Board for the Panama Canal Authority and the Independent Strategic Assessment Group for U.S. Northern Command, under the Institute for Defense Analyses. For these and his other clients, he provides advice and services on a variety of maritime, defense, and homeland security issues. From his retirement from the Coast Guard in 2003 through January 2006, RADM Pluta served, first, as UNITECH’s Senior Vice President, Homeland Security, where he stood up a new operating division focused on the homeland security marketplace and helped to secure contracts for managing DOE's Emergency Operations Training Academy, managing TSA's National Port Security Exercise Program, conducting the Coast Guard's Port Facility Plan review, and conducting exercises for FEMA, the FBI Academy, and the State of South Carolina. Upon promotion to Senior Vice President for Strategic Programs, RADM Pluta led a strategic effort to align the company's core competencies with the future needs of its customers. He also served as a corporate spokesperson, author, executive representative, and Member of the Board of Directors. Through his broad Coast Guard exposure, RADM 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. RADM 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. RADM 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. His early tours of duty included assignment afloat, postgraduate training, staff positions at Coast Guard District and Headquarters offices, and field inspection duty. From July 1988 - July 1991, he served as Commanding Officer, Marine Safety Office, Wilmington, NC, where his command played a key role in support of OPERATION DESERT STORM. RADM Pluta then assumed command of the Coast Guard’s largest training center, Reserve Training Center (RTC), Yorktown, VA. He served as Chief of Staff, Ninth Coast Guard District, Cleveland, OH, where he was responsible for the day-to-day Coast Guard activities throughout the entire Great Lakes region. In July 1996, RADM 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. RADM Pluta served as the Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, the Coast Guard’s largest regional command 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. A native of Carteret, NJ, RADM Pluta is married to the former Jane M. Oakley of Weeksville, NC, the best of military spouses, with more Coast Guard time than her husband (her father and brother were CG aviators). They are blessed with three wonderful and talented children, Christine, Kevin, and Brian, who afford them an abundance of pride and satisfaction. An avid baseball fan, RADM Pluta is a perennial visitor to Spring Training and hopes, over time, to visit every Major League ballpark.

Rear Admiral Pluta is an independent maritime consultant, headquartered in Fairfax, VA, USA. RADM Pluta has over 39 years of experience in leadership and management positions in the U.S. Coast Guard, at UNITECH, and in the international community. A sample of his worldwide client base includes BIMCO, the Panama Canal Authority, and the Institute for Defense Analyses. RADM Pluta serves as the U.S. Liaison Officer for BIMCO, a global shipping organization serving two thirds of the world’s ship owners and operators. He also serves as a Member of the Maritime Navigation Advisory Board for the Panama Canal Authority and the Independent Strategic Assessment Group for U.S. Northern Command, under the Institute for Defense Analyses. For these and his other clients, he provides advice and services on a variety of maritime, defense, and homeland security issues.

From his retirement from the Coast Guard in 2003 through January 2006, RADM Pluta served, first, as UNITECH’s Senior Vice President, Homeland Security, where he stood up a new operating division focused on the homeland security marketplace and helped to secure contracts for managing DOE's Emergency Operations Training Academy, managing TSA's National Port Security Exercise Program, conducting the Coast Guard's Port Facility Plan review, and conducting exercises for FEMA, the FBI Academy, and the State of South Carolina. Upon promotion to Senior Vice President for Strategic Programs, RADM Pluta led a strategic effort to align the company's core competencies with the future needs of its customers. He also served as a corporate spokesperson, author, executive representative, and Member of the Board of Directors.

Through his broad Coast Guard exposure, RADM 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. RADM 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.

RADM 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. His early tours of duty included assignment afloat, postgraduate training, staff positions at Coast Guard District and Headquarters offices, and field inspection duty. From July 1988 - July 1991, he served as Commanding Officer, Marine Safety Office, Wilmington, NC, where his command played a key role in support of OPERATION DESERT STORM. RADM Pluta then assumed command of the Coast Guard’s largest training center, Reserve Training Center (RTC), Yorktown, VA. He served as Chief of Staff, Ninth Coast Guard District, Cleveland, OH, where he was responsible for the day-to-day Coast Guard activities throughout the entire Great Lakes region. In July 1996, RADM 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.

RADM Pluta served as the Commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, the Coast Guard’s largest regional command 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.

A native of Carteret, NJ, RADM Pluta is married to the former Jane M. Oakley of Weeksville, NC, the best of military spouses, with more Coast Guard time than her husband (her father and brother were CG aviators). They are blessed with three wonderful and talented children, Christine, Kevin, and Brian, who afford them an abundance of pride and satisfaction. An avid baseball fan, RADM Pluta is a perennial visitor to Spring Training and hopes, over time, to visit every Major League ballpark.