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Bret Gilliam is a pioneering technical diver. He is most famous as the founder of TDI, the largest technical diver training organisation in the world, and as the one time holder of the world record for deep diving on air.

Gilliam logged more than 15,000 dives over a 29 year diving career as a professional diver, including military and commercial work, as well as the more comfortable surroundings of liveaboard dive vessels, luxury yachts, and Caribbean resort operations.

In 1990 he set the world record for a deep air dive in Roatan, a record that he later extended to 475 feet in 1994.

In 1993 he formed TDI after leaving the board of directors of IANTD following a disagreement. He remains president of International Training, the umbrella organisation of TDI, SDI and ERDI. He is also a former president of NAUI International, and remains a member of the board of directors.

He is currently the president of Ocean Tech, editor of Scuba Times Advanced Diving Journal, and a legal consultant in diving defense litigation. He is a former CEO of Uwatec USA.

He is also a Merchant Marine Master, a submersible pilot and recompression chamber supervisor.

Gilliam has written scores of articles, and written or contributed to nine books, including the ground breaking Deep Diving - an advanced guide to physiology, procedures and systems.

Bret Gilliam has been professionally involved in the diving industry since 1971, a career now spanning over thirty-nine years. Since beginning diving in 1958, he has logged over 18,000 dives around the world. His background includes scientific expeditions, military/commercial projects, operating hyperbaric diving treatment facilities, liveaboard dive vessels and luxury yachts, retail dive store & Caribbean resort operation and ownership. He was founder and President of V.I. DIVERS LTD. in the U.S. Virgin Islands until selling that corporation in 1985. As Vice President and Director of Diving Operations for Ocean Quest International, he was responsible for the world's largest sport diving program from 1987 to 1990. Bret is licensed as a U.S.C.G. Merchant Marine Master, submersible pilot, aircraft pilot, and recompression chamber supervisor. Gilliam is author of over 800 articles and primary author, editor or contributor to 49 books on diving, maritime operations, and diving emergency medical procedures. He is a frequent lecturer at diving conferences around the U.S. and internationally. He has sponsored research projects in decompression sickness, diving computers, inert gas narcosis, multi-day repetitive diving and developed some of the first certification specialty courses in dive accident management & recompression chambers and multi-level computer diving. His company operated the first ship-based recompression chamber facility to treat sport divers. His diving operations have conducted in excess of 400,000 dives for sport divers since 1971.

Bret is a prolific writer on various subjects related to diving education, diving physiology, travel, and operational systems, he has been published in virtually every diving magazine in the U.S., Europe and Asia. His underwater photography has illustrated national advertising campaigns, science and diving educational texts, travel and glamour articles, and a diversified selection of diving articles. He was the senior editor of Scuba Times, a contributing editor/photographer to Discover Diving, Sources, Rodale's Scuba Diving, Sport Diver, Deep Tech, Aquanaut (Germany), Ocean (Germany), and Sea (Israel). He has also been a frequent writer for Undercurrent, Sub Aqua Journal, In Depth, and Aquacorps. Additionally, he has articles in press for the New England Journal of Medicine and the South Pacific Undersea Medical Society Journal. He was Senior Technical Editor for Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine from 1992—95 and again from 1999 to 2001. He founded and served as Publisher and Senior Editor of Fathoms magazine from 2001-2005 when he sold the publication to pursue a series of book projects.

He is one the country's most experienced deep divers and holds the world depth record for compressed air diving at 490 feet set in 1993. He is an instructor for NAUI, PADI, NASDS, PDIC, SDI and a Technical Diving Instructor for ANDI, TDI and IANTD. Additionally, he is ex-Chairman of the Board of Directors of NAUI, former President & CEO of UWATEC USA INC., former co-publisher of Deep Tech Journal, and recently retired as President of International Training Inc. (TDI, SDI, ERDI) when he sold the company in February 2004. Bret has twice been the recipient of NAUI's Outstanding Contribution to Diving Award, Beneath The Sea’s Diver of the Year, as well as international honors for his photography and film work. He is also included in Who's Who In Scuba Diving by Best Publishing. He was elected to membership in the internationally prestigious Explorers Club with additional honors as a "Fellow National". He is President of the consulting corporation, OCEAN TECH. He is also a member of the elite Boston Sea Rovers.

Gilliam has founded and sold five diving corporations (V.I.Divers Ltd., AMF Yacht Charters, Ocean Quest International, G2 Publishing Inc. (Fathoms Magazine), and TDI/SDI) since 1971. As Vice President and CEO, he was instrumental in taking UWATEC public in a sale for 44 million dollars to JWA in 1997 and sold his publishing company (Scuba Times and Deep Tech) to Petersen/E-Map in 1999. His entrepreneurial successes in the diving industry have made him a multi-millionaire. He is 59 and lives on an island in Maine but still travels extensively internationally on dive business and expeditions. He has a custom 32-foot power yacht and just completed another 48-foot power yacht for wildlife photography projects in New England.

Bret GilliamOCEAN TECH54 Stonetree Rd.Arrowsic, ME 04530

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