Sam Feola is a retired program director with Raytheon Company and a Tier-1 Certified Program Manager. From 2006-2012 Feola was the program director of Raytheon Polar Services, supporting the National Science Foundation’s U.S. Antarctic program. Polar Services provided operations, construction, and facilities maintenance and science support at three stations, and aboard two research vessels in Antarctica. Feola managed 400 full-time staff and over 2,000 seasonal contract employees each year, coordinating offices on four continents to manage the requirements of a 12-year contract valued at over $1.9 billion.
During his tenure, the new South Pole Station was constructed at the end of a 10,000 mile-long logistics chain, within budget, and on time in the world’s coldest, harshest, and most remote environment on earth.
Feola’s previous program management experience included President of a joint American-Canadian company based in Ottawa, Canada, providing base construction, operations, and maintenance support to the Canadian Defence Forces serving overseas in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He was also a business systems manager for DISH Network in Denver, CO, Director of Logistics for the U.S. Antarctic Support Associates in Denver, where he played a key role in transitioning the Antarctic program from predominately military support to civilian support, Proposal Manager in Orange, CA, Project Site Manager in Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey, and Special Project Manager on a Department of Energy contract in Hawaii and the Marshall Islands.
Feola received a bachelor of science in Business Administration from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1967 and graduated from the Naval Aviation Schools command as an officer receiving a designation as a naval aviator. He
spent 11 years on active duty, including a one-year tour as a combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
For his 20 years of service in the Antarctic program, a geographic feature, Mount Feola, was designated in his honor, located in the Asgard Range, Dry Valleys, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica.