Philip M. Kenul is a retired NOAA Corps rear admiral (lower half) who last served as the Director, NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations Centers, which are part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO).

Kenul flew light aircraft in support of aeronautical charting and photogrammetry while also serving as chief of those respective branches.

There he supervised 22 Naval officers and 90 enlisted personnel, and was responsible for the worldwide deployment of five Navy P-3 research aircraft.

The following year, he was named the first Director of NOAA's newly established Homeland Security Office, which was also one of the first NOAA-wide matrix programs.

NOAA aircraft conduct such operations as snow surveys to support hydrological forecasts of flooding and drought; marine mammal assessments, including endangered right whale surveys; remote sensing in support of homeland security; aeronautical charting; and disaster assessments following extreme weather events.