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Rob Quartel (Donald Robert Quartel, Jr.) is a former Member of the US Federal Maritime Commission, and an internationally recognized expert in international maritime and US national transportation policy. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of FreightDesk Technologies, a leading provider of internet-based applications for international cargo management to shippers and Third Party Logistics Suppliers (3PLs). His experience spans a wide range of international energy, transportation, and environmental regulatory matters and a number of public-private ventures including mass transit, high-speed rail, highway, aviation and port development projects. Mr. Quartel is a prolific writer and speaker, frequently cited in the media and called upon for expert testimony. Mr. Quartel ran the US DOT Transition in 1988, was a member of the Bush-Cheney Transition Advisory Committee overseeing the US Department of Transportation in 2000, and serves in an advisory capacity on several US DOT and Customs committees examining the issue of Homeland Security. He was the first to describe a concept for creating a "virtual border" by profiling international ocean containers prior to transport to the United States. This "Pushing the Border Out" concept has become one of the five pillars of the President's Homeland Security Strategy. Mr. Quartel has been involved in a broad range of public and private transportation and international trade industry activities. From 1996 until June 1999, Mr. Quartel served as President of the Jones Act Reform Coalition, a group of over 100 companies and trade associations representing an affiliated membership of over 940,000 companies and national consumer and conservative taxpayer interest groups seeking reform of the nation's domestic shipping laws. He has been a Lecturer at Yale University's Graduate School of Management, teaching a course on Transportation Strategy and Management; and has served as a Member/Advisor to the Army Science Board on Strategic Sealift and "Army After Next" issues. Mr. Quartel is also a Member of the Wilson Council at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

FreightDesk Technologies, of which Mr. Quartel was the principal Founder, was named by Forbes Magazine in September 2000 as "one of the ten best" in logistics on the web. FreightDesk is a leading provider of advanced Internet-based cargo management applications for international freight, targeting large international shippers and 3PLs and others that serve the global transportation and trade industry. The company delivers a comprehensive neutral platform for multi-modal multi-leg transportation management, information exchange and end-to-end shipment execution for international cargo. Its technology has a significant impact on the international trade execution process, enabling global access and sharing and management of all international freight data, to the benefit of both shippers (cargo owners) and large international 3PLs. FreightDesk internet-based utilities reduce operating and capital costs, provide access to leading edge technologies, and deliver new value-added services to transportation players engaged in managing international freight.Quartel served during the Bush Administration (1990-92) as U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner. As Commissioner, Mr. Quartel became the leading advocate for economic deregulation of the American maritime industry, including the abolition of the FMC itself. (Partial ocean shipping deregulation was finally passed in 1998.) He was responsible for implementation of the FMC's $26 million Automated Tariff Filing System, which eliminated the need for paper tariff filings. He resigned in 1992 to run unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Florida