SCAA Executive Director

From Nelson Fetgatter, SCAA President

I wanted to inform you all that John Allen, who has served as the Spill Control Association of America’s (SCAA) SCAA’s Executive Director role for the past twelve years, will be stepping back from his duties by the end of 2022. This is a move that John and I have talked about for some time now, as he tries to strike the balance between serving the Association and spending time with his family.

John’s contributions to SCAA cannot be overstated. Since taking on the role back in 2010, he has been a constant ambassador, consistently representing our Association in a professional and proactive manner. His passion for growing the membership of SCAA has been equaled only by his desire to see our industry’s relationship with the regulatory community thrive. Under his tenure, the Partnership Action Team (PAT) with SCAA/APICOM and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) expanded to include a number of other agencies.    

Although retiring from his formal role, John will remain involved with the Association, and will always be welcomed as part of our family.

With John’s departure, I’m pleased to announce that Brian House has been appointed as Executive Director of the Association, effective October 1^st. Brian is an experienced and highly-regarded leader in our industry, having spent his entire career in the environmental and emergency response field. He recently retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of Moran Environmental Recovery LLC (MER), a nationally recognized Oil Spill Removal Organization (OSRO), after a more than thirty-six-year career in our industry.

More importantly, Brian has been actively involved in SCAA for the past twenty years, and has served as a Board Director for a large portion of that time. He served as SCAA’s President from 2008-2011, and subsequently took on a leadership role with the Government Affairs Committee. Working closely with John Allen, he has regularly been involved in the annual Partnership Action Team (PAT) initiatives, as well as Capitol Hill visits on behalf of the Association. He was nominated to serve as the SCAA/APICOM representative in the USCG’s Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) during the Deepwater Horizon incident, and has been active in a number of Government/Industry workgroups since that time. More recently, he was nominated to serve as a member of a work group tasked to evaluate the Inland Estimated Recovery System Potential (ERSP) Calculator on behalf of the National Academies of Science (NAS).

We are excited to have Brian take on this role with the Association. His experience and passion will benefit SCAA and its membership as we continue to evolve along with our industry. At the same time, we are forever grateful for the outstanding contributions that John Allen has provided to SCAA over his tenure, and look forward to his continued involvement and friendship.

Nelson J. Fetgatter, President