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Seattle. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s director of operations in the Seattle region, Thomas W. Hardy, will retire at the end of this week. Hardy has led CBP’s operations at ports of entry on the northern border from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes since its inception on March 1, 2003.

Prior to that, he was director of field operations in the same region for the former U.S. Customs Service from October, 1995 until February 28, 2003. In both positions Hardy directed operations and enforcement activities at ports of entry in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota.

“Although the geography is daunting, managing the 67 crossings on the flat part of the border and in the Puget Sound was interesting and rewarding.” Hardy said. “Resources are sometimes spread thin but we get done what we need to do. I wish we could have done all we wanted to do.

“The can-do spirit of the 1,600 employees arrayed under our motivated port directors breeds innovation, wonderful enforcement results and excellent service to the American people and the international trade community,” Hardy said.

During his tenure as leader of Customs and CBP operations for this large section of the U.S.– Canadian border, Hardy was a charter member of the Trade Compliance Board of Directors that provided oversight to the birth of the Automated Commercial Environment. His field expertise was integral to the development of software and the implementation now in place.

Hardy also served on the Budget Advisory Team and Labor Management Equal Opportunity Committee at the direction of the Commissioner. Working with law enforcement partners, Hardy spurred the creation of IBET, the International Border Enforcement Team, to combine both operational and investigational resources on both sides of the border to deter smuggling of illegal drugs and people.

During his tenure, he spearheaded the continuing success of the Nexus program that expedites inspection for frequent crossers. This northern-border program has more than 60 percent of the applicants nationally from the Blaine, Wash. area.

“During my career, I traveled greatly to manage properly, but I was able to keep my family on the West Coast, particularly the Seattle area,” Hardy said. “That stability allowed me to be successful in directing my part of the agency through a transition from trade facilitation and narcotics enforcement priorities to anti-terrorism and later immigration and agriculture inspection missions. We don’t drop priorities, we accumulate them.

You start thinking you have gained expertise and yet more challenges come your way. Now, as a DHS [Department of Homeland Security] component, there is an acknowledged role for CBP to be prepared and develop ways to be resilient to disasters or attacks. We literally do exercises now to stay in shape in case bad things happen.”

Hardy said he particularly enjoyed the opportunities to work with those in international trade to assess risk, leverage their knowledge and keep commodities moving legally.

The arrest of Ahmed Ressam, the “Millennium Bomber” at Port Angeles, Wash., in December 1999, thrust the more remote areas of the US-Canada border into the limelight. Hardy was the principal field officer responsible for guiding his officers through the incident while also working with Customs headquarters and his fellow field directors to harden remote ports of entry with the assistance of Customs officers from throughout the nation. This carried through to the establishment of gates and camera systems to eliminate what was essentially an honor system of compliance after-hours at numerous ports of entry.

Earlier in his career in San Diego, Hardy led Customs through a major incident wherein more than 8,000 pounds of cocaine was found in what was manifested as an empty propane truck. The port of Otay Mesa had many methods in place to deter smuggling, but using a potentially dangerous hazardous material carrier on a huge scale was a first. “The lesson learned for the trade and the agency was that we can never be complacent with our trust and our procedures—the bad guys are trying to beat us, Hardy said. “Today, we still see it happening despite our canine resources and non-intrusive devices like the X-ray systems.”

The Seattle field office tackled a unification challenge in 2002-2003 to bring in elements from the Departments of Treasury, Justice and Agriculture into the new Department of Homeland Security without losing focus on the terrorist threat and traditional missions. The field office did not gain many managers but the employees brought their own strong cultures to a new organization. Hardy’s leadership style secured buy-in through extensive training and face-to-face discussions at all levels of the organization.

Hardy has a 36-year background in field operations. In October of 1995, Thomas Hardy became the director for the Northwest Great Plains Customs Management Center. Before that, Mr. Hardy was district director for the Seattle district and the Columbia-Snake district in Portland, Oregon since 1989. Prior to his appointment as the district director in Portland, he served as a supervisory import specialist in Seattle, and as assistant district director in San Diego, one of CBP’s largest land border districts. He entered as an inspector at Blaine, Wash. in 1971, and became an import specialist in 1973.

Hardy is a graduate of Endicott High School in Endicott, Wash., and holds a Bachelor's Degree in business administration (finance and marketing), from Gonzaga University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1971. In 1991, Mr. Hardy completed Harvard's Senior Executive Fellows Program. In 1996, Hardy was given the CBP Commissioner’s “Leader of the Year” Award. In 1998 he attended the Federal Executive Institute. In 2003 he joined the ranks of Senior Executive Service. He is married and has three grown children.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control, and protection of our Nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.