WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thomas Dans is a Texas venture capitalist who has no formal background in science. His consultancy, Almiranta Strategies, was working to help Damen Shipyards land an icebreaker contract with the federal government at the time of his April statement in Anchorage. Damen Shipyards is a Dutch company, and Dans has a business relationship with the firm.

He said at an event in Anchorage, Alaska, in April that Damen Shipyards is the largest builder of icebreakers and ice-class vessels in the world. He that his post did not preclude him from working in private business.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly stated: "Tom Dans is doing a great job leading the Arctic Research Commission, and his shipbuilding expertise has helped him succeed in this role. The President appreciates all he is doing to advance American interests in the Arctic." Commission members of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission are not considered government employees and are not required to file an ethics form disclosing conflicts.

Dans has backed President Trump's push to take over Greenland and has advocated for closer U.S. relations with Russia. At a public appearance in July, he cited the commission’s four priorities as military and national security, energy security, economic development in the Arctic, and community security. He announced plans to travel to Moscow prior to the event where he called for U.S.-Russia cooperation.

Robert Weissman stated: "It’s become standard for people to pursue their personal financial interest." He contends he was unfairly dismissed by the previous administration. He served as a senior policy adviser for international affairs in the Treasury Department during President Trump's first term and served on a secret National Security Council task force on U.S. control of Greenland.

He says he was recruited to learn Russian in his Maryland public school in seventh grade and visited Moscow as an exchange student. He returned to Russia to work in finance in the mid-1990s and worked at a private equity fund financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Kirill Dmitriev is a Harvard-educated banker who serves as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intermediary with Trump officials.

He wrote in The Hill that he was fired without notice and anonymously slandered by the White House for ‘lacking relevant expertise.’ At the time, he was the first commissioner in the agency’s 37-year history to speak fluent Russian, the language of the world’s largest Arctic nation. He launched an investment firm with two other former Trump Treasury officials, which closed in late 2023.

Why It Matters

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), chaired by the National Science Foundation, is updating the five-year National Arctic Research Plan for 2027-2031. Section 103(c)(3) of Public Law 101-609 states that any vacancy in the Commission's membership shall be filled, after notice is published in the Federal Register, in the manner of the original appointment, for the remainder of the unexpired term.

Timeline

President Trump named Thomas Dans to the Arctic Research Commission for the first time in late 2020. The Biden administration fired Thomas Dans and three other Trump appointees from the Arctic Research Commission in 2021. Thomas Dans' investment firm closed in late 2023.

He stated in a LinkedIn post that he and Kirill Dmitriev traveled in the same circles early in their finance careers. President Donald Trump appointed Thomas Dans as chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in December 2025.

What's New

The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 (Title I Pub. L. 98-373) and Executive Order 12501, dated January 28, 1985, established the United States Arctic Research Commission. Research titled Canceling data collections could imperil efforts to improve U.S. education, a former Trump appointee warns was published in 2025 in AAAS Articles DO Group.

How Sources Differ

Fran Ulmer stated that Thomas Dans' foreign policy opinions are "far beyond" "the Arctic Research Commission’s scientific mandate and" "outside the bounds of what the U.S. Arctic Research Commission has done in the past."

The other industry representative on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission is a Ph.D. and former director of the United States Geological Survey.