Speakers
SPEAKERS
The Honorable Bud Albright
President & CEO
U.S. Nuclear Industry Council
The Honorable Clarence "Bud" Albright is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC). Albright is also the former Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy where he provided leadership for energy and environmental programs, including: energy research and development; demonstration and deployment; environmental cleanup; and legacy management and radioactive waste management. He was appointed by President Bush and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Prior to joining the Department, Albright served as Staff Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. Additionally, he worked as the Deputy Associate Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice. He earned his juris doctorate from George Mason University.
Dr. Andre Argenton
Vice President, EH&S & Chief Sustainability Officer
Dow Chemical
Dr. Andre Argenton is responsible for corporate EH&S governance and corporate sustainability, including the reporting and disclosure of Dow's Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) performance.
Argenton joined Dow in 1999 in Brazil as a research scientist working with various Dow technologies in close collaboration with customers, aligned to a broad range of applications like home and personal care, paints and pulp and paper. Later in his career, already in the U.S. he held numerous leadership positions including director of Core R&D and global R&D director of the Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure business where he was responsible for the pipeline of innovation programs. In his last role as vice president of Core R&D, he was responsible for a broad portfolio of research programs and world-leading innovation capabilities, all aligned to the businesses' goals. He serves on several academic advisory boards for chemical engineering and chemistry including U.C. Berkeley College of Chemistry and University of Michigan Department of Chemical Engineering. He holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Sao Paulo.
Dr. Rita Baranwal
Chief Technology Officer
Westinghouse
Dr. Rita Baranwal was appointed as Westinghouse's Chief Technology Officer in January 2022, to lead Westinghouse's global research and development investments and spearhead a technology strategy to advance the company’s innovative nuclear solutions.
Dr. Baranwal’s appointment marks a return to Westinghouse where she worked for nearly a decade in leadership positions in the Global Technology Development, Fuel Engineering, and Product Engineering groups. In this new, strategic role, Dr. Baranwal will drive next-generation solutions for existing and new markets that align with Westinghouse’s forward-looking strategy.
Prior to rejoining Westinghouse, Dr. Baranwal served as the Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy where she directed the R&D portfolio across current and advanced nuclear technologies while collaborating across nuclear utilities, national labs, reactor developers, academia and government stakeholders. She has also held senior leadership roles with the Idaho National Laboratory as Director of the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN), where she was responsible for providing the nuclear industry and other stakeholders access to DOE's state-of-the-art R&D expertise, capabilities, and infrastructure to achieve faster and cost-effective development, demonstration, and ultimate deployment of innovative nuclear energy technologies. Under her leadership, GAIN positively impacted over 120 companies.
Dr. Baranwal most recently was the Chief Nuclear Officer and Vice President of Nuclear for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Dr. Baranwal is a past Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Nuclear Society's (ANS) Materials Science and Technology Division and is distinguished as an American Nuclear Society Fellow.
Dr. Baranwal has a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in the same discipline from the University of Michigan. She has also served on the Boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters-Pittsburgh and North Hills Community Outreach.
Dr. Anthony Calomino
Space Nuclear Program Manager
NASA
Dr. Anthony M. Calomino is a materials and structures research engineer with the NASA Langley Research Center and has worked for NASA since 1985. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Structural and Engineering Mechanics, and obtained a doctorate in Materials Science from Northwestern University. His primary research is in durability and damage modeling for high temperature materials and composites including metallic super alloys, ceramic matrix composites, ablators, and refractory soft goods.
Dr. Calomino currently serves as the NASA Materials technical lead for Entry Systems Modeling project and the Deputy Principal Investigator for Flexible Systems Development under NASA’s Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator Programs.
Hon. Rebecca Casper
Mayor
Idaho Falls
Jacob DeWitte is the Founder and the CEO of Oklo Inc., a Sunnyvale, CA based company developing and building small nuclear reactors. Jacob has been working with nuclear technology for nearly 15 years and has experience with nuclear reactor design and analysis, spanning a variety of reactors including sodium fast reactors, molten salt reactors, and next generation PWRs. Jacob has worked at GE, Sandia National Labs, Urenco US, and the naval reactor research laboratories. At Sandia, Jacob worked on the Lab’s irradiation facilities, including a fast test reactor. He led core design on the PRISM sodium fast reactor while at GE. Jacob is originally from Albuquerque, NM. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and his SM and PhD at MIT in nuclear engineering where he developed strategies to introduce high performance light water reactor fuels as part of long term capital asset management planning for nuclear power plants.
Dr. Todd Combs
Associate Laboratory Director, Energy & Environment Science and Technology
Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. Todd Combs is the associate laboratory director for Idaho National Laboratory’s Energy and Environment Science & Technology Directorate, where he manages 250+ research staff focused on advanced transportation, clean energy integration, advanced manufacturing, and environmental issues.
Before joining INL, Combs served as the director of the Global Security Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory, where he led a multidisciplinary research team of over 200 that found solutions to protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a wide spectrum of national and global security threats. He also served nearly 14 months as Argonne’s interim associate laboratory director for Energy and Global Security. He led the applied R&D organization of over 800 people, addressing domestic and global sustainable energy and security issues. In this role, he oversaw research and operational activities of the energy systems, nuclear engineering, and global security sciences division.
Combs began his DOE laboratory career in 2008 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as an operations research scientist. He left for Argonne in 2012 while serving as group leader for Transportation Planning and Decision Science. His research has included energy systems modeling and analysis for DOE, most recently related to critical materials supply chains, as well as the application of modeling and simulation to national and homeland security issues for the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
Combs earned his doctorate in operations research and master’s degree in operations analysis from the Air Force Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, his military experience includes assignments at the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency. He is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the Military Operations Research Society (MORS).
Mr. Gregg Cullen
Vice President for Energy Services and Development
Energy Northwest
Greg Cullen joined Energy Northwest in 1993 and currently holds the position of vice president for Energy Services and Development. In this capacity, Greg is responsible for the operation and maintenance of Energy Northwest’s non-nuclear generating plants and the calibration and environmental labs. In addition, Greg oversees the development of projects in a broad range of areas, including clean energy generation and storage, electrification, demand response and support services.
Prior to joining Energy Services and Development, Greg held a variety of individual and management roles, including regulatory affairs, performance improvement, and several positions in support of the engineering, maintenance, and operation of Columbia Generating Station, the Northwest’s only operating nuclear energy facility.
Greg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Northwest Nazarene University and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.
Mr. Fred Dermarkar
CEO
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd
Fred Dermarkar is AECL’s President and CEO. He was appointed in February 2021 for a term of three years.
Prior to joining AECL, Fred was President and CEO of the CANDU Owners Group, where he led the not-for‐profit organization to advance collaboration between CANDU nuclear reactor operators worldwide.
Fred has been working in the Canadian nuclear industry for close to 40 years. Throughout his career, he has occupied a variety of key technical and senior leadership positions at Ontario Power Generation in support of the design, commissioning, operation and refurbishment of its CANDU reactors.
Fred has received the Canadian Nuclear Association’s Ian McRae award in recognition of his substantive engineering contributions, leadership and positive influence on the Canadian nuclear industry and the advancement of nuclear energy in Canada, and the Nuclear Excellence Award from the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) in recognition of his contributions to Ontario Power Generation’s overall post-Fukushima response.
As President and CEO of AECL, Fred is leading the organization in its oversight role, seeing that the priorities of Government are delivered safely and efficiently under the Government-owned, Contractor-operated model.
Fred holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto and is a registered professional engineer in the Province of Ontario.
Hon. Kimberly Duffley
Commissioner
North Carolina Public Utilities Committee
Commissioner Kimberly W. Duffley was appointed to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Governor Roy Cooper for a term commencing on July 1, 2019 and ending on June 30, 2025.
A native of North Carolina, Commissioner Duffley received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a Juris Doctor from Mercer School of Law.
Prior to joining the Utilities Commission as a Staff Attorney, Commissioner Duffley was an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. Until her appointment as a Commissioner, Ms. Duffley was a Senior Staff Attorney with the Utilities Commission and held a leadership position on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Staff Subcommittee on Electricity. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law.
Commissioner Duffley’s interests include art, travel and reading. She and her husband live in Raleigh and have two children.
Dr. Ron S. Faibish
Sr. Director of Strategic Development
Nuclear Technologies and Materials
General Atomics - Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS)
Dr. Ron S. Faibish has nearly 20 years of combined experience in the governemmt and industry energy sectors, including extensive work with and within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory complex and other government functions.
Dr. Faibish leads strategic development for General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group (GA-EMS) in the area of nuclear technologies and materials, leading strategic planning and programmtic growth for fission-related technology development and products, such as high temperature gas-cooled fast reactor technologies, space nuclear thermal propulsion and power systems, advanced nuclear fuels, and various applications of advanced ceramic composite materials, such as GA-EMS’ SiGA®-silicon carbibe technologies-related applications.
Prior to joining General Atomics, Dr. Faibish worked at Argonne National Laboratory for nearly 14 years, most recently leading Argonne’s Energy Systems initiatives and associated program development. He managed several DOE international engagements on nuclear safety and technology. Dr. Faibish also spent time in Washington as an Argonne detailee, serving as the Senior Advisor to the Director of the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy. In this role, he advised the Director on policy, technology and strategic planning.
Dr. Faibish also served as the Science Fellow with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where he worked on major legislation, led the authorship of one of five whitepapers for Senator Lisa Murkowski on the energy-water nexus, worked closely with numerous external stakeholders, and negotiated complex issues related to bilateral international energy legislation, among other accomplishments.
Prior to joining Argonne, Dr. Faibish worked as a Research Development Manager at the International Atomic Energy Agency, managing multinational scientific research proposals and projects related to peaceful, non-electrical applications of nuclear energy.
Dr. Faibish received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. He also completed a certificate program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Ms. Karen Davis Fili
President & CEO
URENCO USA
Karen serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of URENCO USA (UUSA) and has over 32 years of experience in commercial nuclear power. As President of UUSA, she oversees the company’s business strategies and objectives and provides organizational leadership for the UUSA plant. Located just outside of Eunice, New Mexico, UUSA enriches uranium for commercial nuclear reactors for US and international customers and serves as the only centrifuge based operational facility in North America. Karen’s responsibilities include maintaining safe and compliant operations, meeting corporate business goals and objectives, and fulfilling environmental and community stewardship of this $5 billion facility.
Prior to joining UUSA, Karen served as the Site Vice President for two different nuclear power plants, Vogtle 3 & 4 and Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. She also served as the Vice President of Nuclear Projects at Xcel Energy and Vice President of Nuclear Oversight at FirstEnergy.
Karen holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Mississippi College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University. She has a Senior Reactor Operator Certification, Professional Project Management Certification, and attended the Wharton Executive Program. Karen resides in Hobbs, New Mexico and is an active member of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), the American Nuclear Society, and Women in Nuclear (WIN) as well as a contributor and giver in the local community.
Dr. Jess Gehin
Associate Laboratory Director, Nuclear Science and Technology
Idaho National Laboratory
Jess Gehin became associate laboratory director for INL’s Nuclear Science & Technology (NS&T) Directorate in March 2021 after serving as chief scientist for the directorate since 2018. Over his 28-year career, he has built national strategies and priorities for nuclear energy, led complex projects and organizations, and developed strong relationships with senior leaders within INL, DOE and federal sponsors, and other laboratories, companies and universities. In support of the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, he served as the national technical director for the DOE Microreactor Program. He expanded NS&T’s strategic direction and helped develop and establish key projects to build advanced reactors at INL such as the Department of Defense’s demonstration microreactor Project Pele, and the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) Project. Previously, he held research and leadership positions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in nuclear reactor core physics, reactor core and system technologies, reactor modeling and simulation, and fuel cycle reactor applications. While at ORNL, he served as director of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors. He earned a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from Kansas State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His was an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, and has authored or co-authored more than 120 refereed journal and conference articles, technical reports and conference summaries.
Mr. Cosmin Ghita
CEO
NuclearElectrica (Romania)
Mr. Cosmin Ghita became the chief executive officer of Nuclearelectrica in September 2017 and has served as a member of the Main Governing Board of the World Association of Nuclear Operators since January 2020. Mr. Cosmin Ghita started his career within Chevron Incorporated’s offices in Washington DC and moved to Chevron’s country entry team in Romania. He then joined as a partner within Amerocap, a small CEE-focused investment firm focused on energy and natural resources transactions. He later briefly joined Medtronic’s Romania and Republic of Moldova’s team prior to being nominated as energy advisor to the Prime Minister of Romania at the beginning of 2017. Mr. Ghita was also involved in the establishment of Aspire Academy, a leadership and business summer program led by Harvard and Ivy League Professors in Romania. Mr. Ghita has a bachelor of arts in political economy and Russian language from Bates College in the United States.
Mr. John Hopkins
President & CEO
NuScale Power
John L. Hopkins is President and CEO of NuScale Power, LLC, a leading U.S.-based advanced small modular reactor technology development company.
Prior to joining NuScale in 2012, Hopkins was with Fluor Corporation since 1989, one of the world’s largest publicly-traded engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance companies. Hopkins held numerous leadership positions in both global operations and business development. John served as a corporate officer from 1999 until 2012.
Active in a variety of professional and business organizations, Hopkins currently serves on the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C., he was formerly the chairman of the board. He served with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee (NEAC). He is a current member of the Nuclear Energy Institute Executive Committee and Task Force Member, Atlantic Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency's Group of Vienna.
He was a senior energy policy advisor of I Squared Capital, New York. He has also served as the senior executive member of both the Fluor Netherlands and Fluor United Kingdom board of directors; chairman of the board for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC; and as a director of the Business Council for International Understanding.
Mr. Jay D. Horine
Global Head of Energy Investment Banking
J.P. Morgan
Mr. Horine is the Global Head of J.P. Morgan’s Energy Investment Banking Group, which includes the Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities, Midstream and CleanTech sectors. He joined J.P. Morgan in 2006 after 12 years at Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Horine’s experience includes financial advisory, merger and acquisition, and equity and debt financing assignments for clients such as Xcel, Dominion, DTE, PSE&G, EdF, NextEra Energy, Warburg Pincus, Alliant, Ameren, PPL, Portland General, ITC, and Vectren.
Mr. Horine is a graduate of the University of Virginia and has an MBA from the University of Florida. Mr. Horine previously served as Co-Chairman of EEI’s Wall Street Advisory Group.
Dr. Shawn Hughes
Project Director
Carbon Free Power Project
Dr. Hughes is an accomplished executive with more than 40 years of domestic and international experience in the nuclear project management, engineering, construction and deactivation/ decommissioning fields.
He has executed diverse project and line management responsibilities at a variety of commercial nuclear power and nuclear weapon sites, including executive management of complex Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects; meeting project technical, cost, schedule, quality, safety, performance and regulatory challenges; recruiting, motivating and leading teams of contractors and the building trades unions; and commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) operational readiness planning and execution.
As CFPP project director, Hughes is responsible for all aspects of project development, including interfaces with NuScale and Fluor on EPC and COLA development, resolution of remaining technical issues with support from Owner’s Engineers, development and implementation of an operating strategy, compliance with DOE funding requirements and conformance with cost model thresholds to assure project viability among the numerous power offtake subscribers.
In his 40 years of experience in the nuclear field, Hughes has worked for a who’s who of nuclear corporations and agencies in the United States, Canada, China, and the United Arab Emirates in a variety of management and development positions.
Hughes earned a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and has bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering from University of New Hampshire and University of Tennessee, respectively.
Mr. Ralph Hunter
President, Constellation Generation Development;
Executive Vice President, JExel Nuclear Company;
Vice President, Constellation
Ralph Hunter leads the development of Constellation’s international clean energy business in his role as President of Constellation Generation Development, LLC (CGD), and is responsible for all of Constellation Energy Generation’s (CEG) development activities in the nuclear sector worldwide.
With international partners, he is the Executive Vice President and Representative Director of JExel Nuclear Company, the joint venture between the Japan Atomic Power Company and Constellation Energy Generation to develop nuclear advancement in Japan and Asia, following the Fukushima incident. Ralph, representing Constellation’s investment in small modular nuclear reactors internationally, is on the Board of Rolls Royce SMR Limited, a company that will be at the heart of the UK’s clean energy mix by 2030.
Ralph has over 30 years of experience in the nuclear power generation industry in the US and internationally. He has been with Exelon for 12 years and as Vice President, Project Management he was responsible for ensuring all major projects implemented at Exelon’s nuclear plants were fiscally sound, properly planned and successfully executed. In this role, he provided governance and oversight of project management processes and managed strategic projects and alliance activities across Exelon’s nuclear fleet of nuclear reactors. He was also responsible for oversight of Exelon’s long-term nuclear asset management plan and oversight of all contracted craft labor activities.
Prior to joining Exelon, Ralph was Senior Executive and Vice President of Burns and Roe Group, where he led their Nuclear Services and Advanced Technology Division which focused on operations management, new business development, financial and strategic planning, and organization and process improvement development and optimization.
Ralph has also worked for Westinghouse Electric Company LLC and as Vice President, Customer Relations, he was responsible for all business development between Westinghouse and Exelon. Whilst at Westinghouse, he was involved in all aspects of the business, ranging from engineering and project management to marketing and business development, both domestically and internationally.
During his career, Ralph has worked at most of the nuclear plants in the United States including leading the Westinghouse startup testing organization for the Comanche Peak Unit 2 initial startup.
In his early career Ralph was a fuel engineer at Florida Power and Light Company.
Ralph holds both a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Nuclear Engineering and a Master of Engineering degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida. He also attended the Executive Management Program at the Darden
Mr. Simon Irish
CEO
Terrestrial Energy
Simon Irish is Chief Executive Officer of Terrestrial Energy Inc. He has 20 years of global investment banking and investment management experience in New York and London. He has a formal education in the quantitative sciences and quantitative finance and has established and managed multi-billion-dollar alternative investment businesses in North America.
Mr. Irish is the former Head of Man Global Strategies (MGS) in North America, the strategic investment division of Man Group Plc, a leading global investment management business. During his tenure at Man, Mr. Irish was responsible for building and managing the largest and most active strategic investment and managed account business in North America. Mr. Irish was a member of the Investment Committee and responsible for corporate acquisition opportunities in North America for Man Group Plc.
Mr. Irish began his banking career at Credit Suisse in London and in 2001 moved to New York as Director of FRM, the London-based investment firm, to establish its U.S. business.
In 2010, he focused on opportunities in breakthrough energy technologies and in particular nuclear energy given its unparalleled energy density and the commercial potential of advanced reactor technologies.
Mr. Irish holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MSc in Finance from the London Business School.
Dr. Stephen Johnson
Director of Space Nuclear Power
Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. Stephen G. Johnson is the director of the Space Nuclear Power and Isotope Technologies Division at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex. Most recently this program fueled, tested and delivered the MMRTG for NASA’s Mars Scientific Laboratory mission. During his tenure, the laboratory has successfully pursued involvement in the Radioisotope Power Systems program. Following that involvement, the fueling and testing of space and terrestrial power systems operations were transferred from Mound Laboratory to the Idaho National Laboratory. He initiated the Technical Integration Office for the DOE’s national Space and Defense Power Systems program. This office focuses on cross-cutting initiatives, mission planning scenarios for nuclear power systems for DOE customers such as NASA, and provides resources for various other needs for DOE’s SDPS department. Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree with a double major in mathematics and chemistry from Lake Superior State University of Michigan and a Ph. D. in physical chemistry from Iowa State University.
Dr. Kathryn A. McCarthy
Associate Lab Director
Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Kathy McCarthy, Associate Laboratory Director for the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, joined ORNL after three years as vice president for science and technology and laboratory director for the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, where she oversaw a staff of 650 and grew the labs’ commercial work. She previously held a variety of engineering and leadership roles at Idaho National Laboratory, including director of domestic programs in INL’s Nuclear Science and Technology Directorate, director of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Technical Integration Office, and national technical director for the Systems Analysis Campaign for DOE Nuclear Energy’s Fuel Cycle R&D Program.
McCarthy began her career in fusion technology with a focus on liquid metal blanket designs. She was a participant in the US DOE US USSR Young Scientist program, which included experience at the Efremov Institute in Leningrad, Russia, the Latvian Academy of Sciences in Riga, Latvia, and the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia, and was also a Guest Scientist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany.
McCarthy earned her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a major field of fusion engineering and minor fields of nuclear science and engineering and physics. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering this year and has received two American Nuclear Society presidential citations. McCarthy served on the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee from 1999 to 2013 and on the US ITER technical advisory committee from 2010 to 2013.
Mr. Edward McGinnis
President & CEO
CURIO
Ed McGinnis is the Chief Executive Officer of Curio, a nuclear innovation and technology development company. McGinnis was selected to spearhead the company through this Second Nuclear Era™.
McGinnis brings over 30 years of federal government service to Curio during a time when clean energy and American energy security is of utmost importance. For most of his career, McGinnis primarily served the Department of Energy including as Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy (Acting). He also had the esteemed privilege to join the White House as Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
As CEO, McGinnis is focused on unlocking the true and full potential of nuclear energy. The revolutionary developments being made at Curio will be key in ushering in the second nuclear era for the benefit of generations to come.
Curio's mission is to develop nuclear technologies for the purpose of meeting our climate change priorities, re-establishing U.S. global nuclear energy leadership, and ensuring U.S. energy security.
Hon. Jeffrey Merrifield
Former Commissioner, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission;
Chairman, USNIC Advanced Nuclear Working Group;
Partner - Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Jeffrey Merrifield is a partner in the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP’s energy practice. Mr. Merrifield was appointed by President Clinton and reappointed by President Bush to serve on the five-member, Senate-confirmed, independent United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. During his tenure, which was from October 1998 to June 2002 and from August 2002 to June 2007, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a staff of 3,250 employees with a budget of $900 million and set all policies and rules that govern the safe and secure use of nuclear materials at the 104 U.S. nuclear power plants operating at that time.
Prior to joining Pillsbury, Mr. Merrifield served as President of The Merrifield Group, LLC where he provided energy and environmental consulting, advocacy and strategic advice for companies, organizations and individuals. Specific areas of focus included management, energy market analysis, nuclear, fossil and alternative energy policy and deployment, radioactive and hazardous waste disposal strategies, safety and regulatory assessment and analysis, as well as public and government engagement.
Before working with the Merrifield Group, Mr. Merrifield was the Senior Vice President of Global Business Development with CB&I’s Power Business Unit. While there, he led a team of twenty-five sales and proposal staff to develop and win over $1.5 billion in annual sales, including the first competitive, EPC combined cycle gas unit in over six years.
Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President for The Shaw Group, Inc.’s Power Group. As a member of the Power Group's executive team, he was responsible for overseeing the group's external relationships including nuclear business development, customer relations, strategic planning, marketing and communications, as well as government and regulatory affairs.
Mr. Merrifield also served on the Board of Directors for the U.S. Ecology Corporation, which is one of the largest U.S. operators of both hazardous and low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. He served as the Lead Director and Chairman of the Governance Committee and was a member of the Compensation and Audit Committees.
Currently, Mr. Merrifield serves on the Board of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council and is also the Chairman of its Advanced Nuclear Working Group. Composed of more than 70 companies, the Council is the leading business consortium advocate for new nuclear energy and the promotion of the American supply chain globally.
Dr. Tara Neider
Senior Vice President and Project Director, Natrium™ Demonstration Reactor
TerraPower
Tara Neider is senior vice president and project director, Natrium™ demonstration reactor, at TerraPower. In this role, she leads TerraPower’s efforts to demonstrate the Natrium reactor as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Her team is responsible for plant design, testing, licensing, design integration, procurement and project leadership and administration.
Neider has more than 30 years of experience in nuclear engineering, project management and licensing. Previously, she worked as senior vice president of Back End Business Development and Sales at AREVA, Inc. Neider had responsibility for directing back end customer relations for AREVA in North America, developing an overall fuel and decommissioning strategy for the company, and pushing sales revenues for AREVA and AREVA subsidiary Transnuclear, Inc. to double their sales targets.
For four years prior, Neider served as president and CEO of AREVA Federal Services where she established its overall strategy. In this role, she held board positions on major Department of Energy project teams, including the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, Hanford Tank Operations, Savannah River Remediation and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Neider’s many accomplishments include developing a new product line in support of AREVA’s Reactors, Services and Fuels group, and expanding the company’s mission to include sales to Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Neider spent much of her early career with Transnuclear, Inc. She began as a project manager and design engineer and rose to serve as president and CEO of the company. Over the years, she worked on dry transfer systems, dry fuel storage, transportation cask design, licensing, fabrication and installation projects, on both engineering and management levels. As president and CEO, she was responsible for leading the company’s overall strategy and investments, as well as day-to-day operations.
Neider holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also earned an MBA in finance and international business from New York University.
Mr. Kevin Nordt
Chief Resource Officer
Grant County Public Utility District
Kevin joined Grant PUD in 2004. He was appointed to the position of GM/CEO in June 2016 and in December 2021 he stepped down from that role due to health reasons. He began his career at Grant PUD as the Mid-Columbia coordinator.
In December 2006, Kevin became the director of power management with nearly 20 years of experience in the Northwest energy market. He began serving as chief financial officer in 2011, overseeing the power management, finance, reliability and compliance divisions.
Kevin has spent his career in the Northwest in a variety of engineering, marketing, trading and operations positions. Past regional employment includes Portland General Electric and Energy Northwest.
Kevin is a native of New York and holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical physics from St. John's University, a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin and additional graduate work in computational finance at Oregon Graduate Institute.
Mr. Erik Nygaard
Director of Research and Engineering
BWX Technologies Inc.
Erik T. Nygaard is director, Research and Engineering (R&E) for BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT) Advanced Technology Programs (ATP).
In his current role, Mr. Nygaard is responsible for R&E for ATP which includes medical isotopes, advanced nuclear reactors, data science and additive manufacturing. He most recently served as the director, Isotope Research & Development overseeing the company’s groundbreaking medical isotope technology announced in early 2018.
During his tenure at BWXT, Mr. Nygaard has held several engineering positions of increasing responsibility. He served as the product line manager responsible for the development of isotope technology, a nuclear engineer in the company’s Advance Reactors and Engineering group, and a safety analysis engineer and test engineer for mPower™, the company’s Generation III++ small modular reactor project.
Mr. Nygaard joined the company in 2010 as the acting chief reactor engineer for the Medical Isotope Production System program while still a student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He was also licensed by the Nuclear Reactor Commission to operate the university’s nuclear reactor.
Mr. Nygaard earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nuclear engineering from University of Wisconsin - Madison. He holds three U.S. patents and has two patents pending for proprietary technology associated with the medical isotope program at BWXT.
Dr. Mark Peters
Executive Vice President, Global Laboratory Operations
Battelle
Mark Peters, joined Battelle in 2021 as Executive Vice President, Global Laboratory Operations, with responsibilities for governance and oversight of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security national laboratories for which Battelle has a significant lab management role. Prior to joining Battelle, he was the director of Idaho National Laboratory and president of Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, a large, multipurpose laboratory whose mission focuses on nuclear energy, national and homeland security, and energy and environmental science and technology.
Previously, he served as the associate laboratory director for Energy and Global Security at Argonne National Laboratory. In 2021, he was elected as a member to The National Academy of Engineering (NAE), for leadership and contributions in advancing US nuclear energy capabilities and infrastructure. He was honored as a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) in 2015, for outstanding accomplishments in the area of nuclear science and technology. He served on the ANS Public Policy Committee and the executive committee of the ANS Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division. He received his doctorate in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in geology from Auburn University.
Hon. Monica Regalbuto
Director, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Strategy
Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. Regalbuto is a leader in the development of nuclear fuel cycle technologies, combining her knowledge in separations, computer simulations, and proliferation risk reduction. She has over 30 years of experience in radio-isotope processing, recovery and immobilization for environmental remediation, resource conservation and medical applications. She currently leads the integrated fuel cycle strategic initiative at the Idaho National Laboratory. In this role, she serves as the lead for the high assay low enrich uranium (HALEU) program, ensuring there is an adequate supply of HALEU fuel for advanced reactors and other applications.
Dr. Regalbuto has served in multiple national leadership roles. In 2015, she was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Environmental Management for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In this capacity, she was responsible for managing the environmental cleanup resulting from weapons production as well as special nuclear materials. This responsibility involved an annual budget of over $6B per year with a geographically dispersed workforce of over 20,000 federal and contractor employees. She managed 16 sites across 11 States. As DOE-EM Assistant Secretary she oversaw management, operations and strategic directions for the Savannah River National Laboratory, an applied research and development laboratory of DOE. As the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fuel Cycle Technologies with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Dr. Regalbuto managed the nation’s research and development fuel cycle portfolio with a budget of about $185 M and a federal staff of about 50 employees. At Argonne National Laboratory, Dr. Regalbuto served as the head of the Process Chemistry and Engineering Department in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division and managed a group of 30 researchers.
Dr. Regalbuto has contributed to the development of innovative energy technologies. As a researcher at Argonne National Laboratory, she has made key contributions to nuclear fuel cycle technology, beginning with the TRUEX process for removing transuranic elements from aqueous acidic solutions such as those found at DOE waste sites throughout the United States, followed by the development of advanced separations processes as alternatives for recycling spent fuel. She led the development of AMUSE, a computer model used by researchers to optimize processes for separating dissolved spent nuclear fuel. Under Dr. Regalbuto’s leadership, Argonne conducted highly successful process demonstrations, the CSSX process, a process for separating cesium-137 from high-level radioactive waste at DOE’s Savannah River site and the UREX+ processes, a suite of solvent extraction processes for the recovery of actinides and fission products from spent fuel. During her tenure at Amoco Oil company, as a member of the Hydroprocessing Team she provided key technical support to several refineries and developed and evaluated alternative technologies for lowering the sulfur levels of gasoline. Dr. Regalbuto serves today as a member of the Standing Advisory Group on Nuclear Energy (SAGNE) at the IAEA which advises the Director General. She has authored multiple journal articles, reports, and presentations and holds six patents.
Born in Mexico, she attended Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. She came to the United States to continue her studies at Notre Dame, earning her master’s and doctorate in chemical engineering.
Hon. Dan Poneman
President & CEO
Centrus Energy
Daniel B. Poneman is president and chief executive officer of Centrus Energy Corp. He also serves on the company’s board of directors.
From 2009 to 2014, Mr. Poneman was the Deputy Secretary of Energy, also serving as the chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Energy. His responsibilities spanned the range of U.S. energy policies and programs – hydrocarbons, renewables, nuclear, and efficiency – including cybersecurity, project management, national security, and international cooperation. He was also responsible for the Department’s efforts on resilience and emergency response, in cases ranging from Fukushima to Hurricane Sandy. Between April 23, 2013, and May 21, 2013, Mr. Poneman served as Acting Secretary of Energy.
Prior to assuming his responsibilities as Deputy Secretary, Mr. Poneman served as a principal of the Scowcroft Group for eight years, providing strategic advice to corporations in a variety of strategic industries. In addition, for eight years he practiced law as a partner at Hogan & Hartson and an associate at Covington & Burling, advising clients on regulatory and policy matters.
In prior tours in government, Mr. Poneman served as a White House Fellow and as Director of Defense Policy and Arms Control for the National Security Council. From 1993 through 1996 he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls at the National Security Council. His responsibilities included the development and implementation of U.S. policy in such areas as peaceful nuclear cooperation, missile technology, space-launch activities, sanctions determinations, chemical and biological arms control efforts, and conventional arms transfer policy.
Mr. Poneman has published widely on national security issues and is the author of Nuclear Power in the Developing World and Argentina: Democracy on Trial. His third book, Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis (coauthored with Joel Wit and Robert Gallucci), received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy. Mr. Poneman is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, a Distinguished Fellow at the Paulson Institute, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His fourth book, Double Jeopardy: Combating Nuclear Terror and Climate Change, was released by the MIT Press in May 2019.
Mr. Poneman received A.B. and J.D. degrees with honors from Harvard University and an M.Litt. in Politics from Oxford University.
Mr. Tom Samson
CEO
Rolls Royce SMR
Tom has 30 years of experience in the power industry in various senior level executive positions in the UK and internationally. Prior to his current Rolls-Royce SMR role, he was CEO and Board member at NuGeneration, which was responsible for developing a new nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria and prior to that was the COO at ENEC and responsible for setting up Nawah Energy, the Operator of the Barakah NPP in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. James Schaefer
Senior Managing Director
Guggenheim Partners
James Schaefer is a Senior Managing Director within Guggenheim’s Power, Energy and Renewables team and covers a number of electric and gas utility and renewable energy accounts for Guggenheim Securities. Mr. Schaefer brings to Guggenheim extensive expertise in energy‐related mergers, acquisitions and financing, developed over his more than 20 years in the financial services industry.
Prior to joining Guggenheim, Mr. Schaefer lead the Global Energy, Power and Renewables Practice at Blackstone. Prior to Blackstone, Mr. Schaefer was a Managing Director, Global Head of Power & Renewable Energy at UBS Investment Bank. Prior to UBS, Mr. Schaefer worked in the power groups at Lehman Brothers, Salomon Brothers and Chase. Mr. Schaefer has completed approximately $60 billion of strategic advisory assignments and over $30 billion of lead managed financings.
Mr. Schaefer graduated with honors in Finance and Accounting from the University of Michigan's MBA program and cum laude in Finance from the University of Vermont.
Mr. Kurt Scherer
Managing Partner
C5 Capital
Kurt serves as Managing Partner for C5 Impact Partners and for C5 Accelerate. In these roles, Kurt focuses on finding and evaluating early-stage leaders and technologies for either inclusion in C5’s global accelerator program or for potential investment from Impact Partners. Previously, Kurt led Booz Allen Hamilton’s national Innovation Center in Washington, DC where he focused on identifying a broad range of technologies, talent, and ideas from across a national ecosystem of entrepreneurs and then incubating those ideas. Kurt also led the Innovation Services practice for Booz Allen, serving a broad range of commercial and government clients in technology, aerospace, oil and gas, defence, and the US Intelligence Community. Kurt served as a U.S. Marine Corps Cobra helicopter pilot, and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Economics and Russian minor from the U.S. Naval Academy.
Hon. Clay Sell
President & CEO
X-energy
Clay Sell serves as CEO of X-energy. Clay has deep professional expertise across many sectors of the international and U.S. energy industry developed through his service in senior level positions in the private sector and government.
From 2008-2018, Clay was the president of Hunt Energy Horizons, LLC, the renewable energy subsidiary of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., a multinational energy, real estate, and investment corporation controlled by the Ray L. Hunt family of Dallas.
Previously, Clay held positions for 14 years in the U.S. government, most recently as Deputy Secretary of Energy in the George W. Bush Administration from 2005-2008 — and the youngest person to hold that position. In that role, Clay served as Chief Operating Officer of the Department and emerged as one of the leading advocates for the Administration’s nuclear energy policies. From 2003-2005, Clay served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and a Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. From 1999-2003, he served as the Clerk for the Senate Energy & Water Subcommittee of Appropriations under the legendary Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico. Clay began his career in Washington on the staff of future House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas from 1995-1999.
Clay holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law and a BBA in Accounting from Texas Tech University.
Dr. Kris Singh
Founder, Chairman & CEO
Holtec International
Dr. Singh received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1972), a M.S. in Engineering Mechanics also from Penn (1969), and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from BIT Sindri (Ranchi University), India (1967). Dr. Singh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 for his seminal impact in the energy sector of mechanical engineering. He received Edison Foundation’s “Thomas Alva Edison Award” in 2015 for his ecologically and environmentally impactful inventions. Rutgers University named him “South Jerseyan of the year – 2016” for his significant beneficial impact on the South Jersey region. In 2017, the National Academy of Inventers elected him a Fellow and the University City Science Center (Philadelphia) inducted him to its “Walk of Fame.” Dr. Singh was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987 for his numerous contributions to heat exchange technologies. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania (since 1974) and Michigan (since 1982) and a member of the American Nuclear Society (1979-present).
A widely-published author in scientific journals (some 70 technical papers, one textbook and numerous symposia volumes) and a prolific inventor (85 patents granted, many pending), Dr. Singh has led Holtec International since the company’s inception, building it into a technological powerhouse respected for its engineered goods and services around the world with nine major operations centers in three countries. Over 120 nuclear plants around the world employ Holtec’s systems and equipment many based on Dr. Singh’s patents. In recent years, Dr. Singh has been leading Holtec in the global race to develop a “walk away safe” small modular reactor to make nuclear energy an economical green power alternative.
An intrepid entrepreneur and a socially conscious industrialist, Dr. Singh has built a $310 million Technology Campus on the Delaware River in Camden, NJ to create much needed employment in one of America’s poorest cities. Thanks to the steady stream of design innovations, Holtec is widely held to be pre-eminent in management of used nuclear fuel.
In his early career, Dr. Singh taught numerous graduate level and continuing education courses, published 70 technical papers, authored numerous books and monographs, and contributed to the creation of several national codes and standards for equipment and system design.
He is currently an Emeritus member of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of Trustees, where he served from 2009-2017, and a member of the University’s Board of Overseers for the School of Engineering and Applied Science (2005-present). In addition, he serves on the Board of the Nuclear Energy Institute (1998-present), and the Cooper Health System (2013-present). He is also a Director of the Washington, DC-based Atlantic Council and a member of the “National Investment Council” that advises the President of Ukraine. He chairs the KPS Foundation (2001-present), a charitable Singh family foundation whose signature contribution to the advancement of science is the completion of the “Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology” at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2013. The KPS Foundation is also active in improving child literacy and public sanitation in India.
Mr. Chuck Tack
Vice President, Nuclear Operations
PacifiCorp (Berkshire Hathaway Energy Subsidiary)
Tack is currently the Vice President of Nuclear Operations for PacifiCorp (Berkshire Hathaway Energy Subsidiary) where his primary responsibility is developing and ultimately operating a new Natrium Reactor as designed by TerraPower (Bill Gates company). Previous to his current role, he was the Managing Director of Generation Support where his responsibilities included owner oversight, direction, and support of multiple resources including coal, natural gas, geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar operations.
Prior to joining PacifiCorp, Tack worked for ATC (Environmental Engineering Firm), Kiewit, Omaha Public Power District (Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station), and Nebraska Public Power District (Cooper Nuclear Station), where he held positions in engineering, operations, regulatory, etc.
Tack holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska Omaha – Lincoln, Masters in Energy Business from the University of Tulsa, and a Masters in Finance from the University of Utah.
Tuck has a Senior Reactor Operator License (SRO) from Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station, a Senior Reactor Operator Certification (SRO-C) from Cooper Nuclear Station, and was a member of the 1997 National Championship Nebraska Cornhuskers Football Team.
Ms. Rumina Velshi
President
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Rumina Velshi was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the CNSC in August 2018. Ms. Velshi has had a long association with the CNSC, having been a Commission member from 2011 until her appointment as President and CEO. Ms. Velshi has extensive technical, regulatory and adjudication expertise in the energy industry. Throughout her career, she has worked in various capacities at Ontario Hydro and Ontario Power Generation, the electrical utilities in the province. Ms. Velshi also previously served as a part-time Board member of the Ontario Energy Board, the economic regulator of the province’s electricity and natural gas sectors. In February 2020, Ms. Velshi was appointed Chairperson of the Commission on Safety Standards (CSS), established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for a four-year term. Ms. Velshi very actively promotes careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), especially for young women. Since joining the CNSC as President and CEO, she has launched a women-in-STEM initiative to consider ways to support women in STEM careers at the CNSC and elsewhere, and to further STEM education by working with interested partners. She has also delivered several international keynote addresses about breaking down barriers for women in STEM. Ms. Velshi was one of the founding members of Canada's Women in Science and Engineering and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Women in Engineering and Science (CIWES), an institute that advances education in the STEM fields worldwide through an international network of organizations, foundations and experts. She has served as Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors of Scientists in School, a non-profit organization that offers STEM-focused workshops to more than 700,000 students each year. Ms. Velshi is one of 150 Canadian women whose stories are compiled in Your Turn, a book published to mark Canada's 150th anniversary and inspire the next generation of women leaders. Ms. Velshi holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in civil engineering, a Master of Engineering degree in chemical engineering and a Master of Business Administration, all from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Francesco Venneri
CEO & Founder
Ultra Safe Nuclear
Dr. Francesco Venneri received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1988 with a Dense Plasma Focus on magnetized plasmas, x-ray production and diagnostics. He continued on to a postdoctoral research position at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in Physics performing MST fusion experiments, density and temperature diagnostics. Afterwards, Dr. Venneri worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Physics Division working on Z-pinch x-ray diagnostics and Inertial liner implosion plasmas and was the National Project Leader for Accelerator-driven Transmutation of nuclear Waste (ATW). Later, at General Atomics as a Chief Scientist within the Energy Group (fission systems), Dr. Venneri oversaw research on deep burn destruction of nuclear waste using TRISO fuel and deep burn applied to gas-cooled reactors. In 2008, he went on to work for Logos Technologies as the Head of Nuclear Systems working with Fully Ceramic Microencapsulate (FCM) fuel and with compact transportable reactors. Currently, Dr. Venneri is the CEO at Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (UNCS).
Dr. John Wagner
Laboratory Director
Idaho National Laboratory
Dr. John C. Wagner is the director of Idaho National Laboratory and president of Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC. He is responsible for management and integration of a large, multipurpose laboratory whose mission focuses on nuclear energy, national and homeland security, and energy and environmental science and technology. He manages this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory of approximately 5,200 scientists, engineers and support staff in multiple nuclear and nonnuclear experimental facilities, with an annual budget of over $1.3 billion.
Wagner began serving as INL director on Dec. 11, 2020. He has more than 20 years of experience performing research, and managing and leading research and development projects, programs and organizations. Wagner’s experience is strongly aligned with INL’s programmatic portfolio.
He has guided and helped implement INL’s nuclear energy strategy during an innovative and exciting time at the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development. As a recognized expert in reactor and fuel cycle technologies, he is called upon frequently to provide expert testimony to Congress and to advise in formulation of policies for nuclear fuel cycles and advanced reactors.
He has been at INL since 2016 and served as associate laboratory director for Nuclear Science and Technology (NS&T) since 2017. His previous roles included director of Domestic Programs in NS&T and director of the Technical Integration Office for the DOE-NE Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program at INL. Wagner initially joined INL as the chief scientist at the Materials and Fuels Complex in 2016. Prior to joining INL, he worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for nearly 17 years, where he held several research and leadership roles in reactor and fuel cycle technologies.
Wagner is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and recipient of the 2013 E.O. Lawrence Award. He has authored or co-authored more than 170 refereed journal and conference articles, technical reports, and conference summaries. He received a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1992, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in 1994 and 1997, respectively.
Mr. Jay Wileman
President & Chief Executive Officer
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy
Jay Wileman is the President and CEO of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH). GEH is a world-leading provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services, with manufacturing, service and sales facilities around the globe. Jay is also responsible for managing the joint venture between the General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE) and Hitachi Corp. With more than 30 years’ experience, Jay has a wealth of international knowledge, having led many global teams to success across the energy spectrum. Prior to being named to his current position in 2015, Jay served as Senior Vice President, Nuclear Plant Projects and Chief Operating Officer upon his return to GEH in 2012. In 2009, Jay was appointed President and CEO of GE Energy Sub-Saharan Africa where he worked with customers to meet the continent’s needs in oil, natural gas, power generation, water, renewables and new grid modernization. Since joining GE in 1994, Jay has held several senior leadership positions in various GE businesses, including energy, mining, rail and oil and gas in the U.S., Japan, Italy, Australia and South Africa. He began his career as a nuclear fuel engineer and commercial manager at Southern Nuclear. Jay earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from Mississippi State University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Hon. David Wright
Commissioner
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Honorable David A. Wright was first sworn in as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 30, 2018. He is currently serving a term ending on June 30, 2025.
Commissioner Wright was Owner/President of Wright Directions, LLC, a strategic energy and water consulting and communications business. During this time, he also was a member of the Advisory Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Nuclear Waste Initiative; and an Ex Officio Member and Chairman Emeritus of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, an ad hoc organization representing the interests of industry, state officials, local governments and tribes, and consumer advocates.
From 2004-2013, Commissioner Wright served the South Carolina Public Service Commission in a variety of capacities, including Vice Chairman and Chairman. From 2011-2012, he served as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners; he had previously served the association in other capacities, including as a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors. From 2010-2013, Commissioner Wright was a member of the Advisory Board of the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute.
Previously, he served as a council member and mayor of Irmo, S.C., and as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
A colon cancer survivor, Commissioner Wright is an advocate for cancer awareness and education, and a former member of the Leadership Council for the Cancer Centers at the University of South Carolina. He was presented with the Community Champions Award by Molina Healthcare of South Carolina in 2016 and the Blue Star Service Excellence Award by the USC Center for Colon Cancer Research in 2014. In 1996, he received South Carolina's highest citizen honor, The Order of the Palmetto.
Commissioner Wright received a bachelor's degree in political science from Clemson University.
