Guy Thomas

Guy Thomas, Science &Technology (S &T) Advisor to NATO's Maritime Security Center of Excellence, and Chairman of NATO’s Maritime Security Information Sharing Working Group. Prior positions included the US’s first S & T Advisor for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), (2003-2012) where he wrote the initial drafts of both the National Strategy for Maritime Security and the National Concept of Operations for MDA, and wrote the C-SIGMA (Collaboration in Space for International Global Maritime Awareness) concept, basis for Task #1 of the US National Space Policy of 2010. After retirement from Civil Service, he served with the Department of Homeland Security S & T Directorate as their subject matter expert for MDA and unclassified Earth observation space systems (2015-2019).

Prior to his service in Civil Service, Guy spent 35 years in military technical intelligence, including 23 years in uniform where he led intelligence collection teams during reconnaissance and combat operations in aircraft, missile cruisers, and submarines. He spent a year plus in hostile waters, and over 2,000 hours in hostile airspace. Directing the initial operational evaluation and acceptance tests of both the Navy EP-3E and then the USAF RC-135W, Rivet Joint Block III, the first two aircraft with automated main mission systems anywhere, he is allowed to wear both USN and USAF wings at the same time, a unique honor. Subsequently, he was one of the Navy’s first 24 space cadre, thereby becoming the first quadruple qualified person in Navy history. He established both the Space and Special Operations presence at the Naval War College, serving on its Red Team for those elements, as well as for electronic warfare. He led the Communications Vulnerability Branch at the Joint Electronic Warfare Center of the Joints Chiefs of Staff. Since retiring from the Navy he has been deeply involved in systems test & development at Johns Hopkins APL where he conceived and led the design of Satellite AIS. He also helped develop anti-missile systems and the Integrated Broadcast system (IBS) before becoming US’s Science & Technology Advisor for Maritime Domain Awareness.

Guy is a Distinguished Graduate of the Naval War College and earned Masters in Business Administration, and in Computer Information Systems, both with high honors, from Bryant University.

He was the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s Individual of the Year (Industry) in 2015. and received US Space Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. He has been nominated for the National Medal for Technology and Innovation, and the Space Technology Hall of Fame.

Author of “A Silent Warrior Steps Out of the Shadows” which details his life in the intelligence world, and “New Sentinels of the Seas – Satellite AIS and the Birth of Global Maritime Awareness” which details how Satellite AIS came to be, its impact on the maritime world, and where space-based maritime situational awareness, a concept he is credited with pioneered, is going.

He and his wife, Clelia, run Wilson House, an award-winning bed & breakfast in Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. They winter in Lima, Peru.