Woodrow F. Clookie, USCG Ret.
Executive Director, National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy
A graduate of the FBI National Academy and with his 45-years in local, state, and federal law enforcement, Mr. Clookie offers a unique perspective from both the military as well as the civilian side of law enforcement and counterterrorism. Recently retired from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) as an Intelligence Specialist, he served as the NCIS liaison to both the U.S. Department of State and its Office of Foreign Missions and the National Security Agency. Mr. Clookie served as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Port Security Committee the Pentagon’s Overflight Security Committee. Prior to NCIS, Mr. Clookie retired from a 25-year service in the U.S. Coast Guard as a Senior Special Agent with the Coast Guard Investigative Service. During his tenure with the Coast Guard, he performed extensive port security duties while assigned to shore and afloat units. Mr. Clookie is the recipient of two Coast Guard Achievement Medals and two Coast Guard Commendation Medals.
John Lewis Jr. FBI, Ret.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Mr. Lewis retired from the FBI as Assistant Director in charge of the National Security Division where he oversaw the FBI’s counterintelligence, counterterrorism programs, and National Infrastructure Protection Center. Prior to that and while he served as Inspector-Deputy Assistant Director for Operations for the National Security Division, he served as Chairman of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s, Committee on Terrorism, Chairman of the National Counterintelligence Policy Board, and the NATO Special Committee on Security. He holds an MA and is a recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and a past commissioner on the National Commission on Terrorism. Having established a worldwide security network, Mr. Lewis most recently retired from Goldman Sachs & Co. as their Global Security Director.
Paul J. Pluta, Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard Ret.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
A graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, RADM Pluta rose through the ranks of the Coast Guard and assumed command of the Coast Guard’s largest training center. He served as Chief of Staff, 9th Coast Guard District, Director, Office of Intelligence and Security with the Department of Transportation, and as the Secretary of Transportations National Security Advisor and principal liaison to the intelligence community. Prior to that RADM Pluta served 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.
RADM Pluta’s Coast Guard career covered program-management and operations in homeland security (all modes of transportation), marine safety, marine environmental protection, and counterterrorism intelligence. He was 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.
Rear Admiral Pluta, currently an independent maritime consultant with a worldwide client base, has over 38 years of experience in leadership positions with the U.S. Coast Guard, UNITECH, and the international community. The U.S. Liaison Officer for BIMCO, a global shipping organization serving two-thirds of the world’s ship owners and operators, RADM Pluta also serves on 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 Analysis.
As UNITECH's Senior Vice President, Homeland Security, then its Senior Vice President for Strategic Programs, RADM Pluta set up a new operating division and focused UNITECH's training, exercise, and simulation offerings on the homeland-security marketplace. He 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
RICHARD H.L. MARSHALL, Esq.
Mr. Richard H. L. Marshall is the Senior Information Assurance (IA) Representative, Office of Legislative Affairs at the National Security Agency (NSA). NSA’s Legislative Affairs Office is the Agency’s point of contact for all NSA matters concerning Congress and is committed to maintaining a relationship with Congress built on trust, candor, completeness, correctness, consistency, and corporateness. Mr. Marshall was instrumental in defining and articulating a shared NSA IA strategic vision with the NSA and DoD IA Strategic Plan. He translated this vision into one of the most persuasive and successful Congressional IA education and awareness campaigns ever implemented by the NSA. This resulted in critical appreciation by key Senators and Representatives on Information Assurance and its impact on helping to protect the nation’s critical infrastructures. As an additional duty, Mr. Marshall also represents NSA in the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Program in Boston, Massachusetts and the Detroit, Michigan areas where he led the effort to establish an International Consortium on Information Assurance. His successes were noted and praised by the Director, NSA.
Mr. Marshall is a sophisticated senior executive level leader recognized and appreciated for his political savoir-faire and common sense coupled with a polished ability to build meaningful relationships and achieve positive results. Highly respected by White House (National Security Council and Homeland Security Council) and Congressional staffers, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury and private sector leaders – particularly the financial services sector – for his subject matter expertise and skills in policy formulation and ardent advocacy, Mr. Marshall commands a deep understanding and appreciation for the full range of Information Assurance-related legal, legislative and policy issues. He interacts confidently in the most senior levels of government, business and academia.
He is highly sought after as a keynote speaker, panelist and moderator at information technology, legal and policy symposia and conferences both here and abroad. He is a nationally recognized, respected and articulate advocate of the need for the private and public sectors to work together to improve information assurance and business continuity practices, policies and technology. He has addressed various international, Department of Defense, Army, Navy and Air Force legal conferences on information operations, information assurance and critical infrastructure assurance, twice sharing the podium with the Secretary of the Air Force and once with the former Vice-President of the United States. He has testified before numerous Congressional subcommittees and has distinguished himself as a guest lecturer at the National Defense University (NDU), the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Stanford University, George Mason University, George Washington School of Law, Boston University, Duke University, the University of Virginia, University of Detroit-Mercy, The Harvard Club, and numerous graduate and law schools on a myriad of legal issues related to national security and information assurance.
Mr. Marshall successfully represented the United States in two high profile cases in the United Kingdom: a civil matter with an amount in controversy of almost a billion dollars and a criminal matter where he appeared before the High Court of Justice in London. In each case, the United States prevailed.
Mr. Marshall graduated from The Citadel with a B.A. in Political Science; Creighton University School of Law with a J.D. in Jurisprudence; Georgetown School of Law with an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law; was a Fellow at the National Security Law Institute, University of Virginia School of Law in National Security Law; attended the Harvard School of Law Summer Program for Lawyers; the Georgetown University Government Affairs Institute on Advanced Legislative Strategies and participated in the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and in the Privacy, Security and Technology in the 21st Century program at Georgetown University School of Law. Mr. Marshall is an Honor Graduate of the USAF Squadron Office School, the USAF Air Command and Staff College, the NDU Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the USAF Judge Advocate General (JAG) School and the Army JAG School (both Basic and Advanced).
Steve Cowper, Esq.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
In 1986 Steve Cowper was elected as the sixth Governor of Alaska. He managed the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill crisis on behalf of the State of Alaska and played a major role in opening up the Soviet (now Russian) Far East for international trade. For his administration's active role in reviving the Alaskan economy and creating a surplus in the state budget, Cowper was named one of America's top ten governors by the publisher of USA Today.
Steve Cowper began his professional career as a maritime attorney in Norfolk, Virginia, but soon moved to Alaska where he was an Assistant District Attorney and later in private practice as senior partner in Cowper & Madson, in Fairbanks. He served in the Alaska House of Representatives in 1975-1978, and was Chairman of the House Finance Committee and Chairman of the Alaska Lands Committee. In 1977-1978 Cowper was one of the Alaska representatives to the Law of the Sea Conference. Mr. Cowper also served as Chairman of the Alaska Permanent Fund, a public investment trust which today has a value of $28 billion and is regarded as the best-managed public fund in the US.
After his term as governor, Cowper was a visiting fellow at the New York-New Jersey Port Authority in 1991. He served from 1995 to 1998 as President of the Northern Forum, an organization of 23 northern regional governments from 10 nations, which is officially recognized by the United Nations. He was Co-Chairman of the Pacific Rim Fisheries Conference in Beijing in 1994 and again in Tokyo in 1997. Cowper is a board member of the Northeast Asia Economic Forum, affiliated with the East-West Center in Honolulu.
Since 1991 Cowper has been CEO of Steve Cowper & Associates, of Anchorage, Alaska, and Austin, Texas, a group which advises companies and governments on energy-related initiatives. In 2004 his firm was chosen as an official adviser to the government of Sao Tome and Principe, an island country off the coast of West Africa. He has also served as a contractor to the US government on infrastructure projects located in other nations. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on large energy infrastructure projects, and has authored articles on the same.
Dan Edwards, USCG Ret.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Mr. Edwards is an FBI National Academy graduate, former Special Agent in charge of USCG District 14, Hawaiian Islands, conducted numerous covert narcotic operations, criminal investigation and various protection operations from various dignitaries to the President of the United States. Mr. Edwards has worked with many Federal, State, and Local agencies as well as INTERPOL in his over 20 years of federal law enforcement experience. Mr. Edwards instructs various aspects of maritime law enforcement tactics, operational planning, investigations, and emergency maritime critical incident response.
Colonel David Bruening, USA Ret.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Col. Bruening completed, in May 2000, a 32-year career in Army Intelligence. Drafted in May 1968, he went through basic and advanced training before entering Engineer OCS, where he finished as a distinguished graduate and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in Military Intelligence in April 1969. In the more than thirty years that followed, Colonel Bruening was assigned to successively higher positions of rank and responsibility in the intelligence field. Duty at posts in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina were combined with overseas tours in Vietnam, Turkey, Belgium and Panama. Almost a third of his career was spent at Fort Bragg, NC, where he performed intelligence duties while assigned to Army airborne and Special Forces units. Performing intelligence duties at ranks from Battalion to Army Staff, as well as at the national level and NATO, Colonel Bruening also commanded intelligence units as a Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel. As a Colonel, he culminated his career as the Defense Attaché, U.S. Embassy Panama. Colonel Bruening earned his M.A. in National Security Studies and is a graduate of the Military Intelligence Officers Advance Course, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the U.S. Army War College.
Captain Ray Mach, USN Ret.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Captain Mach has served as Salvage Officer and Boat Group Commander aboard USS Seminole (LKA-104); as Officer-in-Charge of YFU-97 at NAD, Earle, New Jersey; as Weapons Officer aboard USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938); as First Lieutenant aboard USS Charleston (LKA-113); as Executive Officer aboard USS Shreveport (LPD-12); as Commanding Officer aboard USS Fairfax County (LST-1193), and as Squadron Commander for Maritime Propositioning Squadron One (MPS-1). Captain Mach's tours ashore include two tours at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland; the first as an instructor of seamanship and navigation, and later as Personnel and Administration Officer and instructor of management and economics. Captain Mach's most recent tour was served at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. While at the War College he held the Richmond Kelly Turner Chair of Amphibious Warfare and was a member of the Joint Military Operations faculty. Captain Mach is an instructor of navigation, rules of the road, seamanship and vessel handling as well as operational command and control. Captain Mach is the Academy's program manager for the new PortStar program which launches March 1st 2010.
Michael J. Klein, Esq.,
Legal Counsel, National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy
Mr. Klein earned a B.A. in Economics from Emory University and a JD from The American University. Thereafter, he clerked for a federal judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. As a Fulbright Scholar in Geneva, Switzerland, he conducted post-graduate work in International Law & Law of the Sea. Mr. Klein has practiced law with several international law firms in Europe and in Washington, D.C., handling matters involving International, Transportation and Tax law, including representation of non-profit organizations. As Program Director with the International Law Institute, Mr. Klein trained foreign government officials in ways to improve their legal and economic systems. He teaches at several law schools, including a course on International Legal & Tax Environment.
Gary J. Silversmith, Esq.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Mr. Silversmith's areas of expertise lie in federal contracting, environmental litigation, financial advisory engagements, workouts, dispositions, valuations, and preservation of national historic landmarks. Mr. Silversmith assists the NMLEA in a variety of areas, from consulting on financial matters to contract review. In addition, Mr. Silversmith has afforded the Academy the use of the historic Presidential Yacht, Sequoia, for special events and meetings.
Since 1991, Mr. Silversmith has served as President and owner of P&L Investments, an asset management, investment, and advisory company that has acquired over $100 million in distressed assets. P&L Investments and its affiliates have served as financial advisors on the sale of loans, for example, in 1999 an affiliate of P&L Investments served with KPMG as the financial advisor to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for the SBA's first sale of loans ($400 million) and again for the SBA's third and fifth sales of loans. As President and owner of two Brownsfield's investment and remediation companies, Mr. Silversmith recently received significant positive publicity for the successful remediation and rejuvenation of a 22-acre PCB-contaminated Brownsfield site in suburban Philadelphia. The site is reportedly the first Superfund site in the country to receive State and EPA approval for conversion to a residential usage.
Prior to starting the aforementioned entities, Mr. Silversmith served for three years as a Senior Asset Marketing Specialist selling loans and real estate for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). He holds a BS in Accounting, a JD, and an MLT.
R. Mallory Starr, Jr.
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
Mallory Starr is currently President, Institute of Management Consultants, Inc. for Washington, DC, region, a Director of the Sequoia Presidential Yacht Group, LLC, and a Director of Somerset House Management Association, Inc. He has U.S. and international experience as a management consultant on assignments with Pharmacia Biotech, Sakae Japan, Beijing Stress Management Company, SAIC, Control Data, and Satellite Business Systems Corporation when it was a partnership company of IBM, COMSAT, and Aetna. He also has extensive consulting experience with U.S. and international family-business organizations; including 15 years as an industrial psychologist and internal consultant with a large medical services organization providing psychological services and consultation on people problems, team development, marketing research and development, program planning, board/staff task group management, and quality assurance. Mr. Starr also has experience with U.S. government agencies and retail companies directing critical incident projects.
Albert H. Bienstock
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy Advisory Board
After service as an Army Security Agency cryptographer (in the Philippines and Thailand), Al Bienstock returned to civilian life to obtain his BS in Management from Rutgers and begin his career in corporate finance – accounting, credit management, and treasury—in both administration and management at major, multinational corporations. Mr. Bienstock next joined an insurance brokerage firm thus expanding his expertise to include property & casualty, surety, and employee benefits. He then formed a partnership and in 1990 he established Bienstock Financial Services. Mr. Bienstock was appointed by Governor-elect Tom Ridge to his transition team and later by Governor Ridge to a management review task force on banking and insurance. For 15 years, he served on Hampden Township's Planning and Zoning boards. In 2001, he was elected to the Board of Commissioners and was reelected in 2003. The five-member Board is the Township's governing body. Each Board member has specific liaison responsibilities and among Mr. Bienstock’s are Disaster Preparedness and Finance. He serves on county and multi-county boards that coordinate activities of various municipalities. He has an active ownership interest in BATGA, LLC (which provides homeland-security products and services) and Patriot K-9 Services, Inc. (which trains dogs to detect illegal substances). Mr. Bienstock advises the Board of the National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy as to financial and contractual matters.
Robert M. Wells
Founder
National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy
Mr. Wells has served in law enforcement for twenty-three years. A former Special Agent with United States Coast Guard Investigative Service, Mr. Wells served in an undercover capacity in numerous successful drug investigations. He has been involved with protective operations afloat during the 1984 Presidential campaigns, as well as for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England with the Royal Yacht, HMY Britannia.
As a master instructor at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center, Mr. Wells taught maritime law enforcement and port security operations. Later assigned to the port security training detachment, Mr. Wells trained Coxswains on the NAPCO Raiders in Tactical Boat Operations for deployment to Desert Shield/Storm. In 1993 Mr. Wells joined the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center as a lead instructor in the Physical Techniques Division. While there, he was asked to assist with instruction and course design for the Marine Training Division.
Mr. Wells completed a Coast Guard Reserve tour with the International Training Division where he assisted developing nations (Haiti, Bulgaria, Uganda, and Republic of Georgia) build their Coast Guards and maritime law enforcement divisions. Mr. Wells also instructed for the USCG Training Center’s International Maritime Officers Course (IMOC) which trains officers from around the world in various aspects of the United States Coast Guard's missions.
Mr. Wells founded Wells and Associates, an international law enforcement and security consulting and training company that provides physical, technical, and training expertise with an emphasis on the maritime community. Mr Wells provides security training the British Embassy since 2000. He is a faculty advisor for the international scholar laureate program on diplomacy, Australia 2008 and China 2009. He has lectured at the Naval War College on Coast Guard and Port Security operations. Mr Wells had consulted for MPRI on Maritime and Police training issue's in Sao Tome' e Principe, and Equatorial Guinee Both the National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy and Wells and Associates are headquartered at the Watergate Office Complex in Washington D.C.
M. KHALDOUN HEJAZI, Ph.D.
Director of Global Development
Dr. Hejazi, is a global financial and investment advisor with particular expertise and interests in Natural Resource, Environmental, and Technology Economics. He also is active in globally oriented new ventures that have strong competitive advantages based on cutting edge technology. He has held senior positions at premier firms including Executive Vice President of Wells & Associates International, Regional Managing Director of W&R Financial Services, and Vice Chairman & Managing Director of The Investment Advisory Group – International in New York, founded originally at J.P. Morgan in 1987.
Professionally, Dr. Hejazi has considerable technical expertise and skills including corporate governance, operations management; strategic planning; fundamental and technical research; business management and development; government relationships and high-level negotiations; finance; marketing and networking; mathematical and statistical methods as well as practical computer applications. In addition, he is fluent in several languages including Arabic, English, and French. As an international businessman, Dr. Hejazi has traveled extensively throughout the world and has a deep understanding of cultural, ethnic and historical differences in the major financial centers of the world. Client assignments have included AIG, Banque Indosuez, Citicorp Venture Capital, GE Capital, Mitsubishi, US Gas Research Institute, IBM, and T.A.S.C. (Washington, D.C.), Various sovereign and government funds in the MENA region.
Fiduciary responsibilities have included important Board and Advisory Board positions such as the Colorado School of Mines (Alumni Association), The Investment Advisory Group, RCD, Inc., Halsey Capital Management, The Oasis Project, Inc., Ecole Francaise (Denver, Colorado), Denver International School, and the Foothill Academy and the Advisory Board at the National Maritime Law Enforcement Academy in Washington D.C.
Dr. Hejezi’s academic credentials include a B.Sc. in Chemical & Petroleum Refining engineering, M. Sc. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources & Environmental Economics, with particular emphasis on Game Theoretic Dynamic Algorithms, from the Colorado School of Mines and his publications include eleven “classified” professional studies as well as conference presentations on sensitive topics in economics and computer sciences. His computer and technical skills also include: Computer Languages; Economic analysis software and econometrics, Financial (i.e. Portfolio Management); Operating Systems; Computer Mainframes; and Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence Work Stations.
Within the community, Dr. Hejazi maintains memberships in The American Economic Association, The International Association for energy Economics, The America Institute of Chemical Engineers, The Institute of Cognitive Sciences, The Association of Computing Machinery, and the International Association of Registered Financial Planners.