NRC ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL MANAGEMENT CHANGES;
AGENCY STRENGTHENED FOR COMING CHALLENGES
Printable Version

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale E. Klein Tuesday announced three key senior management changes, rounding out a series of long-planned top-level selections to better position the agency to prepare for challenges expected in the coming decade.

Chairman Klein, with the approval of the Commission, chose Jim Dyer, now Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and on assignment from his post as director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), as the agency’s new CFO. Replacing Dyer at NRR is Eric Leeds, now deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Material, Safety and Safeguards (NMSS). Michael Johnson, now deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES), was selected as director of the Office of New Reactors. He succeeds Bill Borchardt who earlier was picked as the agency’s new Executive Director for Operations. All changes are effective May 2.
 
“These changes bring tremendous talent to bear on areas important to the agency’s future. They are the direct result of the agency’s very thorough strategic succession planning process that develops and prepares new leaders for the agency,” said Klein. “It is important to keep a steady focus on the operation of existing reactors, as Dyer has during his tenure, and to ensure improvements in the licensing of new reactors under Bill Borchardt continue as even more applications arrive. It is critical to the overall efficient operation of the NRC that we have a sound financial underpinning and that we spend the money entrusted to our agency efficiently.”

NRC Executive Director for Operations Luis Reyes noted that senior NRC leaders meet regularly to discuss succession issues at the agency’s top level, and the NRC has a very thorough career development program to train its future leaders. “Each of these individuals has proven themselves as effective managers for many years at the NRC and each will be an outstanding leader in these critical positions,” Reyes added.

Last week Klein announced Borchardt’s appointment and said that Reyes had agreed to remain with the agency and not retire. He will return to Atlanta to again serve as Regional Administrator in the agency’s Region II office. That office hosts the agency’s new reactor construction inspection program, based there because the bulk of most anticipated new reactor license applications are in the South.

Dyer, 56, is a 25-year veteran of the NRC and spent years in NRC’s regulatory arena, most recently heading NRR for over four years. In that capacity he was responsible for the safety of the existing fleet of 104 reactors and 33 research and test reactors. While he has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, he also holds a master’s degree in business administration and an associate degree in accounting. He was deputy regional administrator in the agency’s Texas-based Region IV office and regional administrator in the Illinois-based Region III office. Before joining the NRC he was a nuclear submarine officer in the Navy and an engineering consultant and manager with TRACOR Inc.

As CFO, he will be responsible for all the NRC's financial management activities, including maintaining an integrated accounting and financial management system, monitoring the execution of NRC's budget in relation to actual expenditures, and controlling the use of agency funds to uphold applicable laws and standards. The CFO also ensures compliance with the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act, and is responsible for implementing the Chief Financial Officers Act and the Government Performance and Results Act at the NRC. Dyer succeeds Bill McCabe who took a similar position with the Department of Health and Human Services.

Leeds, 49, began his career in the Navy as a nuclear officer. In his new role he will oversee operating commercial nuclear power plants and research and test reactors. He joined the NRC in 1984 in NRR, serving in a variety of engineering and inspection areas. He began in the agency’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in 1999. The next year he became the Special Projects branch chief in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards within NMSS. In 2003 he became deputy director of the Division of Licensing Project Management in NRR, and in 2004 he was assigned as director of the Division of Preparedness and Response in the agency’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. He became the deputy in NMSS in February 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova University.

Johnson, 51, currently serves as the deputy director of RES, the agency office that plans and executes research supporting NRC programs. He has held that post since April 2007. He joined the NRC in 1986 as a reactor operations engineer and has held increasingly responsible positions in NRR since then. His assignments have included deputy director of the Division of Inspection Program Management, the Division of Inspection Program Management and the Division of Systems Safety and Analysis. From 2005 to 2006 he was Director of the Office of Enforcement, and before accepting the position in RES he worked as the assistant for operations in the EDO office. He is a graduate of the NRC’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program. He received a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the nuclear submarine force for seven years.

NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer
Wednesday, October 01, 2008