41 MAY 2026 REGULATORY REPORT LEE BOONE // PVA SENIOR REGULATORY AND PROGRAMS ADVISOR INTRODUCING MYSELF Lee Boone, Senior Regulatory and Programs Advisor H ello, PVA members. I am Lee Boone, and I am de- lighted to be joining the Passenger Vessel Associ- ation (PVA) staff as senior regulatory and programs advisor. It is a part-time role, but one I’ve been moving toward naturally. My connection to PVA and the passenger vessel industry stretches back more than 29 years and making this relationship official feels like a very welcome next step. My background is in vessels, engineer- ing, marine safety, business, opera- tions and program leadership. I am a professional engineer, project manage- ment professional and naval architect, and I hold degrees from both MIT and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Over the course of more than three decades, many of them with the U.S. Coast Guard and with Gibbs & Cox, I’ve had the opportunity to work across the full vessel life cycle; from initial design and shipyard construction through opera- tions, maintenance, repair, and salvage in commercial, military, and offshore disciplines across North America and the Far East. But before any of that, my first real ed- ucation came much closer to home. As a teenager, I worked in my dad’s small family restaurant (“Booney’s”), help- ing him get it off the ground back in the 1980s. That experience gave me an early and lasting appreciation for what it takes to run a small business; the passion that drives you, the hard work that sustains you, and the personal investment that’s on the line every single day. Those lessons have never left me, and they inform how I think about the members of this association and the businesses you have built and worked so hard to grow. My introduction to the passenger vessel world came early on in my Coast Guard career reviewing small passenger vessel plans from the likes of Dejong & Lebet and Scarano Boat Building while at the Coast Guard Marine Safety Center in the 1990s. I also inspected passenger vessels like Victoria Clipper IV (when I ran into Beth Gedney) in the early 2000s. These early experiences and re- lationships forged with PVA stalwarts opened my eyes to the dedication and professionalism that defines this in- dustry and planted a seed that has only grown deeper over the years. Among other roles in the Coast Guard, I served at headquarters overseeing the safety, security, and environmental protection program for more than 35,000 U.S. commercial vessels (work- ing for Eric Christensen). It was in that role that my connection to PVA really took root, having participated in the PVA/U.S. Coast Guard Quali- ty Partnership work that produced the first versions of what would become the Flagship SMS program. That col- laboration was a formative experience, and it deepened my appreciation for what this association stands for. I later served as the Coast Guard’s director of investigations and casualty analysis. Since retiring from the Coast Guard in 2019, I’ve worked in the private sec- tor at Gibbs & Cox leading business development, program management and design work for mostly military vessels. My most meaningful con- nection to PVA during this time has been helping to further develop and refine PVA’s Flagship Program to create a mature program with readily usable tools that PVA can adopt and present to the Coast Guard. Having been part of Flagship from its earliest beginnings through to the program it is today, I’m proud of what we’ve built together, and I look forward to con- tinuing to support and grow it. Retiring from the Coast Guard and joining the commercial world also reinforced something I first learned behind the counter of my dad’s These early experiences and relationships forged with PVA stalwarts opened my eyes to the dedication and professionalism that defines this industry and planted a seed that has only grown deeper over the years.
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