President Donald Trump has named Louis E. Sola as Chair of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) for his second administration. (Trump first nominated Sola as a FMC Commissioner in 2019.)
Prior to serving at the FMC, Sola was a licensed ship and mega yacht broker between 2005 and 2018. According to 2017 financial records, Sola owned 100% of Evermarine Inc., which owns Evermarine Yacht Inc., a Panamanian corporation which engaged in boat sales and services located in Panama City, Panama, and Espanola Energy, another Panamanian corporation engaged in real estate.
According to Sola’s biography, between 1998 and 2004, he served as “a consultant with Berkshire Capital and Arden and Price while raising his family in the Panama Canal Zone,” and served the U.S. Army’s Southern Command as “a Spanish linguist involved with counter intelligence activities in Panama during the War on Drugs in the 1990s.”
[Sola replaces Daniel B. Maffei, “who was designated by President Joseph Biden as Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) on March 29, 2021. He was first nominated to serve on the FMC by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate on June 29, 2016. He was then nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 2, 2019.”]
Sola was distinguished by the Panama Canal with the “Esteemed Order Bearers of the Master Key,” an honorary title bestowed by the Panama Canal Authority, recognizing individuals who have made significant contributions to the operation and management of the Panama Canal.
Sola was “awarded for his work for supporting seafarers during the Covid 19 pandemic and previously transiting the canal more than 100 times.”
Note: After Trump won the presidential election in December 2024, Sola wrote a letter to Trump recommending his fellow Republican FMC Commissioner Rebecca Dye as Chair. Dye has been a FMC Commissioner since 2002, when President George W. Bush first nominated her (Presidents Obama and Biden re-appointed Dye as a Commissioner).