Rear Admiral Brian Fort (retired), US Navy

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President and Program Manager

As a Navy Admiral Brian led in some of the most strategically complex environments in our world. In his final Navy assignment in command of both US Naval Forces Japan and Navy Region Japan, he led the Navy’s largest geographic region, accountable for more than 58,000 remarkably diverse military, civilian, and multinational personnel.

His distinguished career of 32 years included seven unique command assignments and extensive global operations experience across the Indo-Pacific, Oceania, Middle East, High North Atlantic, and Mediterranean. In addition to also commanding the destroyer USS Gonzalez, the ships of Destroyer Squadron Twenty-Six, Navy Region Hawaii, and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, he’s a Navy Nuclear Engineer and the only officer to have ever served as Executive Officer and Commanding Officer of two of the three Navy Nuclear Training Commands. He has significant disaster preparation and recovery experience to include global pandemic response for which the Emperor of Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun.

He’s a proud Arkansas Razorback and graduate of the Naval War College, a George Washington University Elliot School Fellow, taught leadership at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England, and completed executive leadership education at the University of Oxford Said Business School and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

All this pedigree he brought to bear during the summer of 2017 when he led the investigation into the collision of the Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald and a cargo carrier off the coast of Japan—the Navy’s worst maritime accident in more than forty years.

Brian joined AtkinsRéalis US Nuclear after retiring from the Navy and served as Vice President of Strategic Programs, applying his nuclear operations background to support complex federal environmental and infrastructure projects. He then founded his own leadership consulting business where he focused his brand of leadership on helping leaders in high-consequence, high-hazard, and high-impact industries to prevent their own proverbial collisions.

Most importantly, Brian is a devoted husband to his high school sweetheart Kelli, proud father of two amazing millennials, Madison and Olivia, the world’s best G-Dad to two phenomenal grandsons, Henry and Owen, and best friend to his border collie Pearl.