Commodore Michael Malone was promoted to his present rank and into the appointment of Flag Officer Commanding Naval Service (FOCNS) on December 26, 2017. He is the first engineer to hold the appointment in command of the Naval Service. His own career has one foot firmly at sea, with years of service on many ships, and the other firmly in the dockyard, as a shipbuilder.
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Commodore Michael Malone is the first marine engineer to be appointed Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service[/caption]
Graduate of Cork Regional Technical College
Commodore Micheal Malone joined the Irish Naval Service in 1981 as a marine engineering cadet and was commissioned as an officer in 1983. He graduated from Cork Regional Technical College in marine and plant engineering in May 1985 and graduated from the Royal Naval Engineering College, marine engineering application course, Plymouth, England, in December 1986.
He holds an MA in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies from NUI Maynooth and is a graduate of the Defence Forces Senior Command and Staff Course. He has also studied at the Pearl Harbour Naval Shipyard where he completed the International Shipyard Management Course.
Variety of appointments both afloat and ashore over past 36 years
He has held a wide variety of appointments both afloat and ashore over the past 36 years. At the rank of Captain, he held the appointment of Officer Commanding Naval Support Command with responsibility for all HR, logistics, electronics and engineering functions within the Naval Service.
Commodore Malone was programme manager for the design and building of the Irish Navy’s P60 class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs). This programme has witnessed the delivery of four 90-metre OPVs to the Irish Navy during the period 2015-2018:
LÉ Samuel Beckett,
LÉ James Joyce and
LÉ William Butler Yeats, which are now in service, and
LÉ George Bernard Shaw, which will arrive in July 2018.
Concerning this busy period of renewal for the fleet, he said: "As the resident engineer in Appledore, I had a very good insight into the requirements to ensure that we delivered the vessels on time, on specification and on cost. Vessels would regularly have cost overruns, but this has not been the case with the vessels we have built to date."
He is a chartered engineer and fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology (FIMarEST), member of the Institution of Fire Engineers (MI Fire E) and fellow of Engineers Ireland (FIEI), member of the Association of Energy Engineers (US) and a Certified Energy Manager (CEM).
He is married to Mary and they have four adult children. He enjoys tennis in his spare time.