John L. Rives

John L. Rives serves as a key procurement lead within the U.S. Coast Guard’s SFLC Procurement Branch 1 (70Z080), overseeing the acquisition of critical shipbuilding and vessel maintenance services essential to sustaining the Coast Guard’s fleet readiness. His responsibilities include managing full lifecycle contracts for cutter modernization, dry dock overhauls, propulsion system upgrades, and structural repairs, ensuring compliance with naval engineering standards and operational mission requirements. Rives specializes in complex, long-duration acquisitions that support the Coast Guard’s strategic imperative to extend the service life of its maritime assets across coastal, offshore, and open-ocean domains. He maintains enduring relationships with a core group of specialized shipyard and marine industrial contractors, including Fairbanks Morse, LLC, Bay Ship & Yacht Co, Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors, L.L.C., Automatic Coating Limited USA, and Technico Corporation. These partnerships are characterized by deep technical collaboration, with vendors providing expertise in naval architecture, corrosion control, welding integrity, and propulsion retrofits. Rives consistently engages these firms through competitive sealed bidding and negotiated contracts, prioritizing proven capability and quality assurance over price alone. Rives’ procurement portfolio reflects a strict focus on full and open competition, with 100% of awards issued under no set-aside classifications. This approach underscores a mission-driven preference for selecting the most technically qualified and capable vendors, regardless of socioeconomic status, to meet the Coast Guard’s stringent operational and safety standards. His primary procurement focus is exclusively under NAICS 336611—Ship Building and Repairing—where he manages high-value, technically complex contracts for steel-hulled vessel construction, mid-life refits, and maintenance of patrol and response cutters. His domain expertise spans marine systems integration, dry dock logistics, and naval compliance frameworks, making him a central figure in sustaining the Coast Guard’s maritime infrastructure.