Rear Admiral (ret.) Ron MacLaren is a senior fellow and board member of the Caspian Policy Center. He was born in Seoul, Korea, but was raised in Mexico, Peru and the Panama Canal Zone. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Auburn University. He received his commission as a Supply Corps officer through the ROTC in 1979.

He has served in leadership positions both on land and at sea. He has extensive expeditionary logistics experience having held command of the Navy Cargo Handling and Port Group 3, the Navy Supply Support Battalion 2, the Naval Operational Logistics Support unit, the Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB) 12 and the Naval Supply Center Pensacola 109. He has broad joint and combined staff experience having served as chief of staff, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Force; deputy director, United States Pacific Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center; deputy director of Logistics, United States Joint Forces Command 206 and Logistics Response Cell watch chief, United States Atlantic Command 206. He also mobilized as the group commander, Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group Forward Golf in 2007-2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

After selection to flag rank, MacLaren was assigned as the assistant deputy chief of staff for Logistics, Fleet Supply and Ordnance, U.S. Pacific Fleet in October 2009. He was recalled to active duty in March 2010 to serve as director, Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO). JCASO was established by the Department of Defense to orchestrate, synchronize and integrate program management of contingency acquisition across combatant commands, U.S. Government agencies and Multi-National operations during pre-conflict operations, contingency operations and combat operations.

He was promoted to the two star rank in October 2013, the highest rank achievable in the Supply Corps for a Reserve Officer. In this position, he led collaborative business development efforts with foreign governments, multi-national forces, government agencies such as the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the General Services Administration, the Department of Commerce, the President’s U.S. Trade Representative’s office, the National Security Council as well as the Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and the Navy. He spent 5 years conducting business development for the U.S. Government in the countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Concurrently, MacLaren pursued a civilian career in hospital operations from 1983 to 2004 where he operated hospitals as the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Materials Management retiring in 2004.

Advisory Board