Commissioner Louis E. Sola

Commissioner Louis E. Sola is serving his fifth-year term as Commissioner to the Federal Maritime Commission. Throughout the course of his term, Commissioner Sola published a cruise-forward plan for resumption of cruising with a focus on crew and passenger vaccinations. In addition, he recently called upon an alternate marine fuels challenge in a letter to President Biden to aid the maritime industry in transitioning to greener fuels. Commissioner Sola’s most recent speaking engagements provide insights on the primary challenges for carbo-zero emissions within the global maritime industry.

Prior to his nomination, Commissioner Sola was a 2018 candidate for Florida’s 24th Congressional District in his hometown of Miami, Florida. The Commissioner was previously appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott to serve as a Commissioner on the Florida Board of Pilots Commissioners in 2015. As a Commissioner of the Board of Pilots, Commissioner Sola was responsible for licensing and regulating harbor pilots and served on the Probable Cause Panel for Marine Accidents.

Additionally, Commissioner Sola was a licensed ship and mega yacht broker from 2005-2018 and a consultant for Berkshire Capital and Arden & Price from 1998-2004. In earlier years, Commissioner Sola served in the U.S. Army from 1986-1997 as a strategic debriefer and as a counterintelligence agent. Her served the U.S. Army’s Intelligence and Security Command in Munich, Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall by strategically debriefing refugees from Eastern Europe. Subsequently, Commissioner Sola served the U.S. Army’s Southern Command as a Spanish linguist involved with counterintelligence activities in Panama during the War on Drugs in the 1990’s.

Commissioner Sola earned his A.A. in history from Parkland College; a B.S. in Management from the Nova Southeastern University and a M.S in international finance from the University of Illinois. He served as an adjunct professor at Florida State University from 1999-2001 where he taught classes in small business, finance, and entrepreneurship. He is an avid fan of Miami Marlins baseball and has two children, Carolyn and Anthony Sola.