Admiral Frank L. “Skip” Bowman, president of Strategic Decisions, LLC, in Maryland, served 38 years in the US Navy. He was director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, the third successor to Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, and concurrently deputy administrator, Naval Reactors, in the National Nuclear Security Administration at the US Department of Energy, with responsibility for the operations of more than 100 reactors aboard the US Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines, four Navy training sites, and two DOE laboratories. As a flag officer he also served on the Joint Staff as director of Political-Military Affairs and as Chief of Naval Personnel. At sea, he commanded the nuclear submarine USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) and the submarine tender USS Holland (AS 32). His crews were awarded 5 Battle Efficiency E’s during his 5 years in command.

After his navy career, Bowman was president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents more than 300 domestic and international corporations and organizations involved in nuclear energy and related technologies.

Nationally and internationally recognized, Bowman was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England in 2005, selected for the Robert S. Landauer Memorial Lecture Award in 2006 for contributions to radiological physics and radiation health protection, and in 2007 designated an Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by the French government. He was elected to the NAE in 2009. He is an emeritus member of the American Nuclear Society.

He serves on the board of directors of Naval & Nuclear Technologies LLP, the CNA Military Advisory Board, and the National Security Advisory Council of the Center for US Global Engagement. He cochaired a National Academies study on the Security Implications of Climate Change for Naval Forces. He served on the BP Board of Directors and on the BP Safety Review Panel investigating the BP Texas City refinery tragedy. He was a director of the National Energy Foundation, US Naval Submarine League, and US Energy Association and served on the Duke, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Penn State, and University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Visiting Committees.

Bowman is a 1966 graduate of Duke University in mathematics, earned MS degrees in nuclear engineering and naval architecture/marine engineering from MIT in 1973, and was elected to Sigma Xi. He married his high school sweetheart, Linda, in 1966. They have two children and six grandchildren.