Speaker Information
Clay Maitland, Founding Chairman has worked in the shipping industry since graduation from law school in 1968. Clay has been employed by International Registries, Inc. for 37 years and is now a managing partner of the company, which administers the Marshall Islands Ship Registry – the third largest registry in the world. He is President of the Trust Company of the Marshall Islands (TCMI), the statutory Maritime Administrator of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Prior to the year 2000, Clay held similar positions with regard to the maritime administration of the Republic of Liberia.
Among his other affiliations: Director of the Coast Guard Foundation and the Coast Guard Auxiliary Foundation; Member of the American Bureau of Shipping, and of the National Cargo Bureau; Founding Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), Chairman of the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA) Industry Advisory Council; Board Director of the Maritime Industries Academy Foundation (Baltimore Harbor School); Member of the American Bar Association, New York City Bar Association and Maritime Law Association of the United States ; former Chairman of the National Maritime Historical Society; former Chair of the Admiralty Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and of the Committee on Intergovernmental Organizations of the Maritime Law Association of the United States (MLA). Clay has served as a delegate to the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Clay received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the State University of New York Maritime College in 2006, and was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Distinguished Public Service Award in 2010.
Senator Lisa Murkowski is the first Alaskan-born Senator and only the sixth United States Senator to serve the state. The state’s senior Senator, Lisa Murkowski is a third-generation Alaskan, born in Ketchikan and raised in towns across the state. Senator Murkowski is now the Chairman of both the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment.
Senator Murkowski is considered the leading expert among her Congressional colleagues on Arctic issues – and has worked continuously on Capitol Hill to raise awareness that Alaska is the reason that America is an Arctic Nation. At the beginning of the 114th Congress, Senator Murkowski joined Senator Angus King (I-ME) to form the Senate Arctic Caucus, to advance issues important to the Arctic and to the people who live there. Murkowski has represented the nation at international events like the Conference of Arctic Parliamentarians and the Arctic Council, most recently in Iqaluit, Nunavut where the U.S. took over as Chair.
Prior to her appointment to the United States Senate, Senator Murkowski practiced commercial law in Anchorage and served three terms in the Alaska State House of Representatives. She was elected to a full six-year U.S. Senate term in 2004, and was re-elected in 2010 in a historic write-in campaign.
Rear Admiral Daniel B. Abel assumed the duties of Commander, Seventeenth Coast Guard District in June 2014. He is responsible for all Coast Guard operations throughout Alaska which include protecting life and property, enforcing federal laws and treaties, preserving living marine resources and promoting national security. The Coast Guard’s forces in Alaska total more than 2,500 active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliary personnel, and employs 15 cutters, 52 boats, and 17 aircraft across an area of responsibility that includes portions of the North Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. Headquartered in Juneau, the District Commander provides operationally ready maritime forces to Coast Guard and Department of Defense Commanders for Coast Guard, joint and interagency operations both domestically and internationally. In his previous assignment, Rear Admiral Abel commanded the First Coast Guard District. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, he oversaw all Coast Guard operations across eight states in the Northeast encompassing more than 2,000 miles of coastline from the U.S.-Canadian border to New Jersey and 1,300 miles offshore. Rear Admiral Abel’s other assignments include Deputy Director of Operations for United States Northern Command. As the principal advisor to USNORTHCOM, Rear Admiral Abel provided leadership and counsel supporting strategic mission guidance; including homeland defense and security operations as well as defense support of civil authorities. As Commanding Officer of Air Station Cape Cod, he oversaw all aviation support to the Coast Guard’s First District. He acted as Project Manager for “Rescue 21,” leading the replacement of the outdated distress notification and command, control and communications system along the nation’s 95,000 miles of coastline. Prior staff tours include serving as the Coast Guard’s Chief of Aviation Safety and as a Program Reviewer crafting and defending the service’s budget. Other operational tours include command of Air Station San Francisco, Operations Officer for Air Station Houston, Aviation Training Center standardization/instructor pilot for the H-65 Dolphin helicopter and his initial aviation tour as a search and rescue/law enforcement helicopter pilot in Miami. His education includes a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, with High Honors, from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1983. He also served as valedictorian of the College of William and Mary’s Master of Business Administration class of 1994. In 2005, he was a distinguished graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) earning a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy. While at ICAF, Rear Admiral Abel completed the Department of Defense Senior Acquisition Corps syllabus, and subsequently earned his Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Program Manager Designation. He has earned qualifications in both the H-65 helicopter and the HU-25 jet. His initial officer tour was as a deck watch officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless homeported in Miami Beach. Rear Admiral Abel’s personal awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, three Legions of Merit, and two Meritorious Service Medals. Admiral Abel is also an Eagle Scout.
Mark A. Swanson Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, Executive Director Mark Swanson is a retired U.S. Coast Guard Officer with over two decades of service. Mr. Swanson is a 1984 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, with a degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Additionally, Mr. Swanson holds masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the PWSRCAC, Mr. Swanson worked for Shell Oil in Houston Texas as an Emergency Response Manager and for the international ship classification group Lloyd’s Register managing technical training services for the Americas.
Dr. Tara Riemer joined the Alaska SeaLife Center in 2003 and was named President and CEO effective July 10, 2012. Tara previously served the Center as Chief Operating Officer, Director of Research and Grant Operations, Grants and Contracts Manager, and Research Administrator. Prior to moving to Alaska, Tara worked as a strategic management consultant for McKinsey and Company in Boston and Auckland, New Zealand.
Tara received a B.S. in biomedical and electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Tara serves as a board member of the North Pacific Research Board, Alaska Ocean Observing System, and North American Marine Environment Protection Association.
Drue Pearce joined Crowell & Moring in 2010 as a Senior Policy Advisor with their Environment, Energy and Resources and Public Policy Groups. She divides her time between the Alaska and D.C. Crowell offices.
Pearce served in the Alaska State Legislature for 17 years, presiding as Senate President for two terms. She left the Legislature to serve as Senior Advisor to Secretaries Gale Norton and Dirk Kempthorne at the Department of the Interior. In 2006, she was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by Congress as the first Federal Coordinator in the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects.
Governor Sean Parnell appointed her to the Alaska Aerospace Corporation Board where she serves as Vice-Chair. She serves on the Board of the Marine Exchange Alaska and is the immediate past Chair of the Institute of the North. Pearce is an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute.
Pearce is a graduate of Indiana University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and The Executive Program at the UVA Darden School of Business.
Agneta Dahl is a certified Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and is employed with NJ Resources, Inc. supporting the oil and gas industry designing and executing exercises globally. She retired as a Commander from the Coast Guard in 2013 after 22 years of service, including an assignment at the IMO’s World Maritime University in Sweden. While there, she managed a EU project focused on contingency planning and cross-border incident management. She has extensive experience in oil spill prevention and response, incident management, contingency planning, and exercise development. Ms. Dahl holds a BS in Biology and an MSc in Quality Systems Management.
Charlotte Brower has served as the Mayor of the North Slope Borough since November 2011. Prior to her election, she was the Director of Human Resources for the North Slope Borough. Her career in public service has also included election to the North Slope Borough Assembly, the North Slope Borough School District Board of Education, and appointments to the Ilisagvik College Board of Trustees and the Alaska Rural Law Enforcement & Justice Commission. She has also served as the Barrow Magistrate for the Alaska Court System.
Mayor Brower is a graduate of Chemawa High School and she received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration & Management from Alaska Pacific University. She is currently pursuing a Master’s of Business Administration degree.
She has been married to her husband Eugene, President of the Barrow Whaling Captains Association, for the last 40 years. They have six children and 23 grandchildren
