Vice Admiral Peter Neffenger was appointed in 2015 by President Obama to lead the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a position he held until January 2017. Prior to this he enjoyed a distinguished 34-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served as the 29th Vice Commandant, the head of Coast Guard global operations, and most notably as the Deputy National Incident Commander for the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill, the largest and most complex in U.S. history. Adm. Neffenger is a recognized expert in leadership and crisis management. When he took the helm of the TSA, the agency’s challenges were substantial and numerous. His subsequent transformation of the organization led to his being named one of the 25 most influential business travel executives of 2016 by Business Travel News.
Adm. Neffenger is Chairman of the U.S. Board of Directors for Smartmatic, the world's largest election security technology company; serves on numerous advisory boards; is a member of the Baldwin Wallace University Board of Trustees; holds an MPA from Harvard University; an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College; an MA in Business Management from Central Michigan University, and a BA from Baldwin Wallace University. He is a two-time recipient of the Department of Homeland Security's Distinguished Service Medal and is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute, and an Instructor in Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint venture of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Adm. Neffenger is the Managing Principal of Neffenger Consulting, LLC, an independent consulting business.