Robert "Bob" D. Sharp is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

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) to support national se ...

Early life

A native of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, Sharp graduated from the University of the Pacific 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 rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. H ...

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 (Washington, D.C.), National Defens ...

in 2008.

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 serv ...

; and Director,

National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office The National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO) is a United States Navy entity which promotes and facilitates intelligence sharing between the Navy and various federal, state, and local authorities, private companies, and foreign go ...

. During his initial flag assignment he served as the Director for Intelligence (J2), United States Special Operations Command. He retired from active duty in 2022.

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 First Trump administration personnel Year of birth missing (living people)