Joseph A. Byrne
Associate Administrator
for
Environment and Compliance
Maritime Administration

Mr. Joseph A. Byrne, a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service, became the Associate Administrator for Environment and Compliance on May 27, 2007.

 In this position, he implements the newly formulated and critical Maritime Administration (MARAD) role in addressing the growing regulatory and compliance challenges facing the Nation’s maritime community.  In this regard, he is responsible for initially organizing, staffing, and, thereafter, supervising, directing and coordinating the activities of the newly-formed office of the Associate Administrator for Environment and Compliance and its constituent elements dedicated to issues of safety, security, environment, complia0nce, related international rules, regulations and standards and programmatic maritime research and development.

 As for his role in international standards and rule-making, Mr. Byrne serves as chairman of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Subcommittee 3 on Piping and Machinery, member of the Advisory Group (AG) to the ISO Technical Committee 8 on Ships and Marine Technology, and the ISO Official Observer to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Subcommittee on Design and Equipment (IMO DE).  He also is a member of the Engineering Industry Advisory Board of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy that was established several years ago to consult with faculty and staff on marine engineering and naval architectural curriculum and other related matters designed to enhance the quality and preparation of midshipmen entering upon a career in the U.S. maritime industry.

 In the area of research and development (R&D), Mr. Byrne continues to collaborate with other federal, state, local agencies, and the private sector in carrying out programmatic-related R&D in which MARAD provides management, technical expertise, coordination and oversight of such projects while its partners provide the funding.  In the four years prior to assuming the new post, he led a similar, diversified $14 million R&D safety and environment program involving 30 R&D projects, 14 presentations at national and international conferences, partnerships with eight other federal agencies, ten state and local governments, four universities, three national laboratories, ten vessel operators and many private sector maritime-related businesses.  . 

 In other R&D areas, he is a member of the Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program/Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise (NSRP/ASE) - a joint industry/government body, established by the U.S. Navy, to oversee the administration and utilization of Navy funds dedicated to industry led/industry driven R&D designed to enhance the construction of more affordable dual use naval vessels.  In a related area of naval ship construction, Mr. Byrne is member of the Executive Committee of the Department of Defense Joint High Speed Sealift Group, in which he works with flag and general officers in devising plans and programs for construction of high-speed marine platforms that could have a dual use (combatant/commercial) potential.

 From 2000 to 2007, Mr. Byrne was Director, Office of Shipbuilding and Marine Technology, Maritime Administration (later renamed the Office of Marine Asset Construction and Technology).  In this role, he supervised, directed and coordinated MARAD’s continuing support to the maritime industry in regaining and retaining its competitiveness worldwide.  In addition, he oversaw the delivery of technical marine engineering and naval architectural support, consultative services and assistance to, among others, MARAD’s Title XI, RRF and other vessel construction, repair and operations related programs, to the aforementioned Navy’s NSRP/ASE Program, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) U.S./ China Environmental Technology Exchange Initiative, to the National Science Foundation Design/Development Program of a New Class of Polar Exploration Vessels, and to the NOAA Fisheries Research Vessel  Design/Development Program.   It was during this period that he also encouraged MARAD participation in, and support for, the development and use of consensus shipbuilding standards and regulations, both domestic and international, as described above.

 From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Byrne was the Director, of MARAD’s Office of Shipyard Revitalization, and Director of MARAD’s National Maritime Resource & Education Center (NMREC).  In this position, Mr. Byrne served as the principal advisor to the Maritime Administrator in the formulation, implementation, analysis and evaluation of the 1993 National Shipbuilding Initiative (NSI) – an executive/legislative branch program to support long-range goals and programs designed to assist the U.S. shipbuilding industry in reestablishing its competitive position in the international commercial marketplace.  One element thereof was the $250 million MARITECH program of industry/government cost-shared R&D aimed at developing competitive, commercial state-of-the-art vessel designs, shipbuilding processes, technologies, business practices and marketing strategies.   Under his leadership, MARAD partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in administering the entire program, but specifically, managed in its own right over $154 million of MARITECH projects. 

For a period of seven years (1987-1993), Mr. Byrne was a member of the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Delegation to the Commission for the Study of Alternatives to the Panama Canal (CAS).  CAS was an international mission established by the Panama Canal Treaty of 1969, staffed by the governments of Panama, Japan and the United States, and based in the Republic of Panama.  Its mission was, in effect, to devise a master plan for the Panama Canal for a facilities expansion in the 21^st Century.  The United States mission or delegation consisted of representatives of the State, Transportation, Commerce and Defense Departments.  After two years on site, Mr. Byrne was named Principal U.S. Delegate and shortly thereafter was appointed by the CAS tri-national Board of Directors as the CAS Executive Director.  In both leadership positions, he was spokesman for, and managed the affairs of, his delegation and of CAS itself, including supervision and direction of the U.S. Delegation and the CAS multi-national staff.  He was also responsible for budgets, negotiations and oversight of some 30 outside contractors.  In this regard, the Commission had a $6.6 million annual budget that was principally used to examine into all aspects of Canal, vessel, and shore operations.  Accordingly, he oversaw studies involving marine and civil engineering, traffic, safety, security, environment, construction cost estimation, revenue forecasts, finance, socio-economic, political and human factors concerns, to mention a few.  The CAS report, calling for the construction of a larger, independent, parallel lock system was published in 1994 and was a factor in the passage of a recent referendum by the Panamanian electorate approving a Canal improvement project calling for the construction of a “third lock” system capable of servicing larger ships.  For his service as Principle U.S. Delegate and CAS Executive Director, the U.S. State Department awarded Mr. Byrne its Meritorious Honor Award Medal in October 1993.  He also received an earlier Meritorious Honor Award and step increase in salary for his volunteer work in manning the U.S. Embassy Crisis Center and as State Department Liaison to the Joint Task Force, Panama, during Operation Just Cause – the U.S. military operation in 1989-90 that liberated Panama from the tyranny of a brutal dictator.  

 From September 1985 to December 1986, Mr. Byrne was Chief, Division of Ship Financing Contracts, Office of the Chief Counsel, Maritime Administration.  He had the responsibility for representing the U.S. Government's interests in the negotiation and closing of major Title XI loan guarantee transactions involving the construction U.S. flag vessels built or to be built in U.S. shipyards.

 During the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Byrne worked in the Port of New York and New Jersey as an officer and director of an intermodal multi-purpose marine container terminal and as General Counsel to the New York Terminal Conference - a consortium of some thirty steamship operators, stevedores and terminal operators that developed and administered free time and demurrage rules for cargo entering and leaving New York Harbor.  He also was a member of the New York City Council on Port Promotion and Development, and the New York State Department of Transportation Advisory Commission on Intermodal Freight.

 Mr. Byrne served as a Commissioned Officer in the United States Marine Corps, with last active duty as a member of the Staff of the Commanding General, First Marine Air Wing.