Barry Myers, the chief executive of the private weather forecasting company AccuWeather, is President Trump’s pick to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The appointment of Myers, a businessman and lawyer, breaks from the recent precedent of scientists leading the agency tasked with a large, complex and technically demanding portfolio. Every past NOAA administrator but one, attorney Richard Frank who served from 1977-1981, held science degrees.

The agency oversees the National Weather Service, conducts and funds weather and climate research, and operates a constellation of weather satellites as well as a climate data center. It also has critical responsibilities in monitoring and protecting the nation’s coasts, oceans and fisheries.

Myers’s supporters say he brings valuable experience from the private sector that will help NOAA advance its capabilities.

“[I]n an Administration thatJanuary, when he was first rumored to be a candidate for administrator, Myers expressed strong support for the Weather Service and its mission. He has a long history of working with the Weather Service, having advised five directors, according to his biography, and won an award from the American Meteorological Society for “fostering strong cooperation between private sector and government weather services” in 2014.

His supporters believe he will be able to apply his business savvy to help NOAA better leverage assets in the commercial sector.

“Myers will bring that Big Data acumen to NOAA and likely accelerate a process that has slowly been underway: more private-sector collaboration with satellite data, weather models and other information services,” said Ryan Maue, a weather model product developer for Weather.us, in an interview