Donald Robert "Rob" Quartel, Jr.
CEO and Chairman
NTEL·X, Inc
Rob Quartel (59) is a former Member of the US Federal Maritime Commission, and an internationally recognized expert in homeland security and US national maritime and transportation security policy. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of NTEL·X, based in McLean, Va. The company delivers high impact knowledge discovery solutions and operational decision making capabilities and has a track-record of successful technology solutions in intelligence, logistics, security, health and human services and product safety. Its operational analytics, sophisticated business rules processing, and forward-looking predictive analysis significantly improve operational decisions in situations ranging from counter-proliferation activities to insuring food import security to chasing down missing tax collections. Government clients include the US Departments’ of Defense, Treasury, Transportation, and the US Food and Drug Administration. His company is also involved in a highly visible and award-winning truck congestion management joint venture in Jordan’s Port of Aqaba in an operational commercial application of their software solution.
Mr. Quartel’s experience spans a wide range of international security, energy, transportation, safety and environmental regulatory matters. As Maritime Commissioner he was the leading proponent of international liner shipping deregulation and a high-profile advocate for reform of other US maritime laws. Rob took an early role in 2001 indeveloping a public policy response to the issue of international container security, and was the first to publicly describe the concept of “pushing the borders out” via a “virtual” electronic data border that would allow government officials to profile cargoes prior to embarkation to the United States through the fusion and analysis of commercially available data with intelligence information. The concept is today one of the key pillars of national Homeland Security Strategy.
He has throughout his career taken an active role in politics and public policy, and has written and testified extensively on regulatory, maritime and homeland security issues. He twice ran for public office (US Congress in 1984 and the US Senate in 1992) in his home state of Florida. In his earlier career, he served at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Federal Energy Office during the 1973 Oil Embargo, and as Issue Director for the Ford and Bush presidential campaigns. For a number of years, he had a consulting practice the clients of which focused on high speed rail, advanced shipbuilding and maritime reform.
Rob has served as a Member/Advisor to the Army Science Board, is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Member of the Wilson Council, serves on the Board of TechPAC, one of the largest technology PACs in the country; and serves on numerous boards and advisory committees related to US homeland security policy. He has a degree in biology from Rice University and was a member of the Charter Class of Yale University’s School of Organization and Management (MPPM ’78). He is married to Michela English, President of Fight for Children, a DC-based non-profit focusing on education and health risks in the District. The couple has two adult children: Eleanore (25), formerly with Teach for America and now with Accenture Consulting in Northern Virginia; and Will (22), a chef-in-training.