Our Leadership

John Swift has been a member of MSRC’s Executive Leadership Team since 2008 and has fulfilled key management roles at MSRC for 15 years. He most recently served as MSRC’s Vice President responsible for the Atlantic Region, Interior Region, and the Marine Division. He has been with MSRC since 2005 and was heavily involved in both the Deepwater Horizon response and post response expansion of the company’s Gulf of Mexico capability. John also led the post Superstorm Sandy responses, which included three customers, four locations, and over 600 responders. Prior to joining MSRC, John spent 25 years in the U.S flag shipping industry managing tankers, container vessels and tug/barge fleets.

Richard D’Allassandro, Vice President of the Atlantic Region, started his spill response career in New Jersey in 1989. Rich joined MSRC in 1991 as a Responder and was promoted through various operational leadership positions in the Atlantic Region. He has led numerous spill response activities including Hurricane Sandy, Port of New York/New Jersey in 2012, assisted with the Rescue & Recovery efforts during the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, and Deepwater Horizon, where he was responsible for field operations in Pensacola, FL. During his tenure in MSRC, he has developed strong relationships with customers and local, state, and federal regulatory agencies. Rich also supported the State of New Jersey as a Volunteer Firefighter for 25 years and completed his career there as Chief of the Department.

Mike Walker, Vice President of the Gulf Region, has spent his entire career working in oil spill response and most of it at MSRC. Starting with MSRC as a Site Supervisor in Galveston in 1997, Mike served in multiple operations leadership positions in the Atlantic and Gulf regions and was appointed Gulf Region VP in 2007. Mike has demonstrated his ability to lead the largest-scale oil spill responses, cascading dedicated and contracted resources to the Gulf Region from all coasts and employing creative and effective spill response tactics. Large responses Mike has led at MSRC include Deep Water Horizon, Lake Charles Refinery Response, 9/11 Disaster Response New York, Hurricane Katrina/Rita Responses, and more recently in 2019 the tank farm explosion in the Houston ship channel and the barge-LNG ship collision in the same waterway. Throughout his career, Mike has built strong relationships with local, state and federal regulatory agencies across the Gulf Region.

Tim Archer, Vice President of the California Region, started his career in Oregon’s industrial cleaning and response sector in 1983. He has worked for several environmental companies as a Senior Project Manager and General Manager. Significant projects included vessel casualties, Superfund remediation for wood treating and mining sites, tank truck roll overs, train derailments, and drug lab response. He served as the General Manager of Clean Rivers Cooperative in Portland, Oregon before joining MSRC in 2009 as a Response Manager in Miami. He has since managed MSRC operations in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. Tim has responded to over 800 incidents in his career, including the Eagle Otome and managing Deep Water Horizon Mobile Command Post operations while at MSRC.

Joe Bowles, Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Region and Communications & Remote Sensing, is a veteran responder who started working for the oil industry in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1985, starting his spill response career in Valdez Alaska in 1989. Joe joined MSRC in 1993 as a Responder and was quickly promoted through various operations leadership positions in the Pacific Region. He has led complex spill responses including the Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the Waiu Pipeline Spill, Pearl Harbor 1996, and the Deep Water Horizon Mobile Command Post. During Joe’s tenure in MSRC’s Pacific Region, he has developed strong cooperative relationships with state regulatory agencies in the most ecologically conscious regions of the U.S.

Steve Rodes, Director of the Interior Region, started in the spill response industry in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico in 2000 as a civilian contractor for the US Navy. In 2004, Steve relocated to Virginia Beach, VA where he began his career with MSRC as an entry-level Responder. During his time as a Responder, Steve supported many notable large-scale responses including, Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Katrina, Cosco Busan, Eagle Otome, Deepwater Horizon, and several others. Steve has held various operations leadership positions in the Atlantic Region and was instrumental in developing and implementing the inland response concept in 2015; this led to the formation of the Interior Region, which supports numerous customer locations across 37 states. As the Interior Region continues to expand, Steve works closely with various regulatory agencies, STARs contractors, industry partners and customers.