Thomas Emanuel Dans was appointed by President Donald Trump in December 2025 to serve as the 12th Chairman of the United States Arctic Research Commission, an independent federal agency that advises the President and Congress on domestic and international Arctic research. He represents the interests of industry on the Commission.

Mr. Dans’ career includes over three decades of successful experience in finance, entrepreneurship and public service, and spans a broad range of Arctic industries including oil and gas, mining, energy, agribusiness and fisheries, tourism and transportation. During his early career, Mr. Dans held investing roles at Merrill Lynch, Allen & Company and Evercore Partners as well as several international venture and hedge funds. In the first Trump Administration, he served at the Department of Treasury as Counselor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs. Through Almiranta Strategies, he currently advises investors and businesses working in the Arctic.

Mr. Dans is an alumnus of Brown and Harvard Universities and studied in the Soviet Union as an exchange student at the Moscow Energy Institute. Mr. Dans becomes the first fluent speaker of Russian, the language of the world’s largest Arctic nation, to lead the Commission in its more than 40-year history. A Texan and Hispanic American, he speaks five languages and has lived, worked and traveled in over 40 countries. His family roots also extend over 400 years across the north of Canada.

Mr. Dans also continues a proud tradition of Arctic service to the United States begun by his grandfather and namesake, Manuel Dans, a 50-year U.S. Merchant Mariner, who during WWII made the “Murmansk Run” and served in the defense of Greenland.