Robert "Bob" D. Sharp is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

admiral who last served as the 7th Director of the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of natio ...

Early life

A native of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, Sharp graduated from the

University of the Pacific University of the Pacific may refer to: *University of the Pacific (Colombia) *University of the Pacific (Ecuador) *University of the Pacific (Peru) * University of the Pacific (United States) *University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh * University of ...

with a Bachelor of Arts in English and was commissioned through

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a commission as officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Typ ...

in 1988. He holds a Naval War College diploma and earned a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the

Industrial College of the Armed Forces The Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (Eisenhower School), formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), is a part of the National Defense University. It was renamed on September 6, 2 ...

in 2008.https://www.nga.mil/About/Leadership/Pages/VADMSharp.aspx

Naval career

From April 2016 to February 2019, Sharp served as Commander,

Office of Naval Intelligence The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, it is the oldest member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and serve ...

; and Director, National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office. During his initial flag assignment he served as the Director for Intelligence (J2), United States Special Operations Command. He is scheduled to retire from active duty.

Accolades

In addition to multiple personal, unit, and campaign awards, Sharp has been the recipient of the ''Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor award for excellence in instruction'', the United States Army's ''Knowlton Award for Military Intelligence'', the ''Rear Adm. Edwin T. Layton leadership award'', and the ''Naval Intelligence Foundation award for excellence in operational intelligence support to the Fleet''.

Awards and decorations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Robert D. Directors of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency University of the Pacific (United States) alumni Living people Trump administration personnel Year of birth missing (living people)