Robert E. Perez is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of P4 Partners. His distinguished career in federal law enforcement culminated with serving as the Deputy Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In that role, he was the agency’s senior career official, leading the nation’s largest law enforcement agency of more than 60,000 employees and managing a budget of over $15 billion. As Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Perez oversaw the vast range of CBP’s national security mission and directed the execution of the agency’s operations across 328 ports of entry, over 7,000 miles of land border, 95,000 miles of shoreline, and in 50 countries around the world.
Prior to his appointment as Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Perez served as the Executive Assistant Commissioner for Operations Support, where he was in charge of CBP’s Office of Intelligence, International Affairs, Laboratories and Scientific Services, Incident Coordination, Law Enforcement Safety and Compliance, and planning and requirements development. Prior to his role in Operations Support, Mr. Perez served as the Director of Field Operations (DFO) for CBP's New York Field Office, where he directed the activities of over 3,000 CBP employees and oversaw the annual arrival of more than 21 million international travelers and over $240 billion in imported goods. Mr. Perez also held the positions of DFO and Port Director in Detroit, Michigan, leading more than 1,100 CBP employees throughout the state, which includes the busiest commercial truck border crossing in North America and the busiest privately owned vehicle border crossing between the U.S. and Canada.
Earlier in his professional career, Mr. Perez served as the first Director of the Customs–Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) in Washington, DC, a position he held from 2002 to 2005. In that role, he was responsible for the development and implementation of all the industry partnership and supply chain security programs for CBP.
Mr. Perez also held various positions as a Program Manager in CBP headquarters from 1997 through 2001 and began his career with the U.S. Customs Service in 1992 as a Customs Inspector in Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Perez has represented the Department of Homeland Security and CBP as a national security expert throughout the globe at scores of international business conferences, on official assignments alongside senior figures in the U.S. and foreign governments, and in the national and international press. He has been a guest lecturer at the Georgetown University Law Center, Michigan State University Law School, the International Law Enforcement Academy and
the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Mr. Perez has been widely recognized throughout his career for his accomplishments by multiple private and public organizations including receiving the "Keys to the City" from the Mayor of Cartagena, Colombia, receiving the "True American Hero" Lifetime Achievement Award from the Federal Drug Agents Foundation, being named "Person of the Year" by the Maritime Security Council, and receiving the “Outstanding Service Medal” from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Perez is also a recipient of the nation’s highest civil service award, having been conferred the rank of "Distinguished Executive" from the President of the United States.
Mr. Perez holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Rutgers University and is fluent in Spanish. He also is a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. Perez currently serves on several corporate and non-profit advisory boards, and is the Founder & Co-Chairman of The CBP Foundation ( www.thecbpfoundation.org ) - an organization dedicated to supporting CBP employees and their families in times of tragedy.
