DEALE, MD, June 09, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Russell P. Knowles, MEng, MBA, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Since 1992, Mr. Knowles has been performing in diverse technical and program management positions in academics and at the Naval Sea Systems Command. His tenure has been in ship lifecycle management and advancing professional academic achievements. Since 2015, his roles provide key production functions for future aircraft carrier acquisitions, as well as technology development and strategic planning initiatives for all aircraft carrier acquisition and sustainment programs. In these roles he manages strategic and tactical investment priorities that upgrade property, plant and equipment and influence capital expenditure plans. He also has responsibility for performance on contracts in planning and execution worth $80 billion over any sequential five-year period. His most notable accomplishment during his current position is pioneering an interagency agreement leveraging Title 10 and Title 15 authorities in United States Code for commercializing small business manufacturing technologies.
From 2010 to 2015, he served with increasing responsibilities as Director for Ship Disposal and Defense Cooperation Programs. In these functions he had responsibility for over 100 ships managing their custody through decommission, inactivation, storage, demilitarization, dismantling, donation, and support for foreign military sales as well as joint fleet sinking exercises and artificial reefing programs. His most notable accomplishment during this period was creating the first conventional aircraft carrier dismantling specification and awarding multiple contracts for $.01 based on inherent material value of the vessels. He was also instrumental in establishing ship sales programs with other federal agencies with unique authority for material disposition.
From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Knowles performed a variety of key functions in an executive development program establishing capacity plans for public shipyards performing maintenance and repair for all commissioned surface ships and submarines, developed Navy-Marine Corps budget briefs for testimony during the U.S. House of Representative Armed Services and Senate Defense Appropriations Committee hearings, managed technical risk for the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) program, and defined warfighting capabilities for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for all areas of Naval Warfare. His most notable accomplishment during this period was a process improvement that prioritized U.S. Navy's top-line budget mark-up statements to preserve total budget requests. As a result, the Navy-Marine Corps total budget was the only Armed Service to receive all three major requests in full for Fiscal Year 2009: President's Budget, Overseas Contingency Operation budget in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and American Recovery & Reinvestment Act budget.
From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Knowles held similar technical and program management positions in the aircraft carrier sustainment program office where he had direct responsibility for an enterprise-wide change in the navy modernization process leading to future cumulative annual savings of more than $50 billion for aircraft carriers in operation for their 47-years of remaining service life. His most notable accomplishment during this period was revising a 31-year-old Naval Warfare requirement allowing physical configuration change of aircraft elevators on all operational aircraft carriers. The implementation of this change spanned fiscal years 2008 through 2012, applied across 12 operational aircraft carriers, which reduced the maintenance requirement over the remaining Class service-life until roughly 2057. The estimated cumulative net cost savings was approximately $700 million while also enabling execution of higher maintenance priorities.
His career with the Naval Sea Systems Command started in 1999 as a naval architect in the shipbuilding technologies branch at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in West Bethesda, Maryland serving from 2002 to 2004, as the Deputy Program Manager for The National Shipbuilding Research Program. His most notable accomplishment early in this period was co-development of a productivity metric for naval ship construction as a function of ship size and complexity. This led to subsequent development of an industry benchmark standard used internationally to compare shipyard capabilities.
Mr. Knowles' distinguished industry experience initiated in 1992 as the first American professional marine engineer serving in Mobil Oil Corporation's Shipping and Transportation Company international fleet. A significant accomplishment in this position was taking delivery of Motor Tanker EAGLE, which was the first double-hulled very large crude carrier owned by a major oil company complying with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.
After earning a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering with a minor in Business Administration at The Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1992, then serving as a licensed professional mariner, Mr. Knowles later pursued higher education at the University of Michigan, College of Engineering in Ann Arbor, Michigan completing a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in 1997, and a Master of Engineering in Concurrent Marine Design in 1999, also from the University of Michigan, College of Engineering. During his graduate work he completed an independent study comparing small to medium-sized shipyards in the U.S. and Norway, which earned an award. He also continued advanced courses in business administration while interning in two major shipyards performing commercial international shipbuilding contracts on the U.S. southeast and gulf coasts.
In 2010, while serving in an executive development program he earned a second professional degree with an Executive Master of Business Administration from The George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C. Industry certifications have also contributed to Mr. Knowles' professional advancement. In 2022, he completed a Congressional Operations Seminar from The Government Affairs Institute at The Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In 2020, he earned a certificate in Contracting Newbuilding's from Lloyd's Maritime Academy, London, England. In 2016, he earned a special certificate in executive education from The University of Virginia, Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in 2006, he earned a certificate in Lean Six-Sigma from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Mr. Knowles credits his accomplishments to productive mentoring he received from capable leaders and managers throughout his academic and professional career. He has also benefited from maintaining memberships over different periods during his career in collaborative associations such as the American Society for Quality, the American Society of Naval Engineers, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and others. Mr. Knowles also received numerous awards and recognition during his time attaining advanced degrees and contributing to his professional organizations.
Mr. Knowles is honored for his more than 30 years of contribution to the maritime industry especially for his time as a civil servant. He looks enthusiastically to the near future by launching a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in partnership with his brother, who is a retired Chaplain with Army National Guard and practicing ordained pastor. His sister, a devoted social and church worker, will join them later, extending the legacy of more than 100 years of combined uniform, civil and social service to the United States of America and within their own communities. The corporate vision will be to advise enterprises encountering challenges administering the public trust with integrity. Mr. Knowles' core leadership principle that guides his ethics is knowing the difference between what is right, what is necessary and making decisions that benefit the broadest array of affected people.
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