CDR Robert A. Rankin, USN(Ret) Joins BMC as Vice President, Facilities
Cleveland, OH July 7, 2023. Bartlett Maritime Corporation is pleased to announce that CDR Robert (Rob) A. Rankin, USN(Ret) has joined the company as Vice President, Facilities.
CDR Rankin’s Navy service was as a member of the Civil Engineering Corps as a Qualified Seabee Combat Warfare Officer and included service in Iraq as part of Operation Noble Eagle. During this deployment he managed contingency construction contracts for USCENTCOM and served as Liaison to USTRANSCOM for theater airlift.
In industry, CDR Rankin has more than 25 years of plant and facilities management experience. In his most recent position as Senior Director of Facilities and Real Estate for Philips/Signify he was responsible for more than 28 office locations and residence centers, managing 17 healthcare sites with over 14 million square feet of manufacturing and clinical test locations. His annual operating budget was more than $110 million and his annual capital budget was more than $50 million. In one notable recent achievement, he negotiated a 10 year $200 million power purchase agreement for wind power, saving the company more than $50 million over the period of performance. In 2008 two of his plants were listed in Industry Week’s best plants competition 20 finalists list, selected from 400 applicants, with one of these plants being selected as the eventual winner.
CDR Rankin earned a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of North Texas, a Master of Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Louisville. CDR Rankin is also a graduate of the US Navy Civil Engineering Corps Officer Course at Port Hueneme.
Commenting on CDR Rankin joining the Company as Vice President of Facilities, CAPT Edward L. Bartlett, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, noted, “I have known CDR Rankin for almost a decade. Like me, when he left active duty in the US Navy, Rob never left the Navy behind – staying involved and aware of current Navy events. We have discussed the Navy’s submarine maintenance challenges since before I formed the company, and his informal counsel has been invaluable in the development of The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ to assist the Navy in resolving this pernicious problem. I am pleased that he has agreed to now formally join the company in this critical role.”
The nation’s Submarine Industrial Base, which in the 1960’s consistently delivered a new submarine into service every 44 days while properly maintaining this rapidly growing fleet and as recently as the 1980’s delivered 5 new submarines into service per year while properly maintaining a Submarine Force of more than 100 submarines, is in the midst of a now-widely-acknowledged and well understood capacity and capability crisis. There are many reports from various agencies detailing this crisis, summarized at https://www.bartlettmaritime.com/. In response, Bartlett Maritime Corporation is preparing to execute its immediately actionable, cost-effective public-private-partnership proposal – The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ – to add the required capacity and capability to the Submarine Industrial Base. The company’s team includes an exceptionally well-qualified team of senior leaders in both Naval shipbuilding & maintenance and in various key aspects of commercial industry on both the company’s Senior Advisory Board and the company’s senior operating staff.