Thad William Allen is a retired United States Coast Guard admiral who served as the 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard. Allen is best known for his widely praised performance directing the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region from September 2005 to January 2006, and for his 2010 work as National Incident Commander of the Unified Command for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert J. Papp, Jr. succeeded him as Commandant on May 25, 2010, in a change of command ceremony.
Allen officially retired from the U.S. Coast Guard on June 30, 2010, but for 36 days continued in his role as Deepwater Horizon National Incident Commander. He is a Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton.