Executive Bios

Don Munro

Chief Executive Officer

Don co-founded Coastal Environmental Systems and has been Chief Executive since 1981. He came from a background of civil engineering and management, having earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington in 1967. He entered local government in 1972 as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning for the City of Seattle, responsible for policy formation for the Mayor and City Council. There, he was instrumental in the creation of the first Fare Free Zone transit service in the Nation. In 1974, he became Manager of Transit Development with the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle establishing and building long-range plans, as well as a route and service-planning capability, for the then newly formed public transit operator in the Seattle Metropolitan area.

In 1980, Don Munro formed Munro Associates through which he served as General Manager for Ben Franklin Transit, helping to create a transit system in the populated portions of Benton and Franklin counties in Washington State. Within the first 11 months, a funding vote followed by a complete network of routes was implemented and all administrative systems were put into place.

In 1981, Don Munro, along with partner Michael Reynolds, founded what was to become Coastal Environmental Systems, Inc. Under Don’s leadership Coastal has grown from a $500 investment in 1981 to become the leading maker of high-end weather monitoring equipment in the world.

Michael Baron

Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer

Michael Baron is Coastal's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Coastal Environmental Systems since late 2006. Michael has had over 20 years of experience in financial operations and management in the manufacturing and distributing industry. Prior to his arrival at Coastal, Michael was Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary for Thermospas, Inc., from 2003 to 2006, where he led the company through a growth period of more than 1000 percent.

In addition to his experience at Thermospas, Inc., Michael was Chief Financial Office and Chief Operating Officer for Package Systems Corp. from 2001 to 2003. During his time spent at Package Systems Corp. Michael helped negotiate the sale of the company while being able to resolve poor operating performance and regain profitability.

Michael earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Connecticut and obtained his Master of Business Administration in Management from Sacred Heart University.

Patrick Kelly

Vice President, Sales & Marketing

Pat Kelly plays two roles at Coastal Environmental Systems as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and foresees all of Coastal's international sales territories. Prior to his arrival at Coastal Environmental Systems, Pat was a high school principal for Stanford High School in Redmond.

In 1985, Don Murno brought Pat onto Coastal's sales team to further develop Coastal's market presence. Since his arrival, Pat Kelly helped Coastal Environmental System grow to become one of the industries leading manufacturers in professional meteorological weather stations. Pat has also collaborated in the design and development of products like the ZENO^®3200 and the WEATHERPAK^®.

Pat earned his Bachelors of Science in Biology from Seattle University.

Gary Stringer

Vice President, Programs

Gary Stringer is Coastal’s Vice President of Programs and has been with the company since 1995, where he was brought on as Senior Meteorologist and Oceanographer. Gary came from a background of meteorological and project management experience, having completed 20 years in service as a U.S. Navy Commander.

As Vice President of Programs at Coastal, Gary has coordinated with many of Coastal’s biggest clients to collect meteorological/oceanographic data from numerous Remote Processing Units. The data is then forwarded to a central site for display and distribution to users. Moving forward, Gary will continue to focus on understanding the intentions and expectations of our clients, to improve our customer relationships, and to ensure all functional and technical requirements of a contract are fulfilled.

Gary obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Oceanography from the University of Washington and later completed his Master of Science degree in Meteorology and Oceanography at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Timothy Parker

Director, New Product Development

Tim Parker leads Coastal's engineers in new product development and has been with Coastal since 1982. One of the first projects that Tim took on was the electronics for Coastal's first product – a complex Meteorological/ Oceanographic data buoy. Over the years he has acted as ZENO^® Product Manager and Vice President of Engineering.

As ZENO^® Product Manager, Tim led engineers in the development of the ZENO^®3200 and has been technical and project lead for many other contracts, large and small, that Coastal has acquired over the years. Most recently he has been the lead developer of Coastal's Aviation Weather Algorithms.

Tim obtained his Bachelors of Science degree in Physics from the University of Oregon and has also completed graduate coursework in economics.

Brigadier General (ret.) David. L. Johnson

Former Director, National Weather Service

David L. Johnson has been with Coastal Environmental Systems since 2007.

General Johnson served as an Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and as the Director of the National Weather Service from Jan 2004 to July 2007. He was responsible for the day to day civilian weather operations of 122 local Weather Forecast Offices in the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam.

Under General Johnson's leadership, the National Weather received a highly commendable score of "84" from the general public in an American Consumer Satisfaction Index after the superb performance forecasting the track of America's worst natural disaster ever sustained – Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This is one of the top two scores ever earned by large Governmental Agencies. The National Weather Service also exceeded the Government Performance and Results Act standards for tornado accuracy and lead-time during the record setting 2004 tornado season. Under his leadership the National Weather Service fielded and achieved the Initial Operating Capability for America's Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific and Atlantic/Caribbean and acquired operational capability for the 35th and 36 largest supercomputers in the world. General Johnson placed a NOAA weather radio in every public school in America in a massive Department of Homeland Security/National Weather Service joint initiative. General Johnson inherited a 2004 budget of $824 million; at the time of his departure, Congress was reviewing a budget he grew to $903 million.

Prior to his service at the National Weather Service, General Johnson served for 30 years as a United States Air Force Officer. He commanded the 43rd Airlift Wing and Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina from 1997 to 1999. He served his last operational assignment as the Vice Commander of Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field, Florida. Because of his diverse operational credentials, General Johnson was selected to serve as the Air Force Director of Weather and then (after retirement from the Air Force) served as the Director of the National Weather Service until July 2007.