Harvey Severson

Harvey Severson was a male human in Starfleet in the 23rd century. He was a rail-thin, pale-complexioned man of Swedish ancestry. In 2268 he was a senior Admiral in Starfleet. As a flag officer, Severson oversaw Operation Vanguard and was Admiral Heihachiro Nogura's supervising officer at Starfleet Command, whom Naguro viewed as a desk-bound bureaucrat. As Naguro's superior, Severson called Naguro "Chiro" - something which annoyed the Japanese admiral. 

Severson was a hawk with strong beliefs in the Federation's security and supremacy over foreign powers, especially the Klingon Empire. Severson ordered Naguro and the Vault scientists to use the replicated Eremar Tkon array that year to use it to capture the Shedai - in the words of Carol Marcus to "enslave" the Shedai. When Naguro's staff succeeded in capturing all the Shedai, giving the array untold potential for destructive purposes, he passed onto Naguro the thoughts of the New York-based Starfleet Research and Development team's ideas for militaristic tests. Overruling Naguro and Operation Vanguard's head scientist, Ming Xiong's objections, he ordered them to use the array to destroy a test planet in Federation space. The test ultimately led the Tholian Assembly to attack and destroy Vanguard, as the xenophobic aliens realised the Federation had no desire to destroy the Shedai, merely use and abuse their power.