Executive Council Directory

Mark Whitney is the Executive Vice President and General Manager for the Nuclear & Environment (N&E) Strategic Business Unit of AECOM’s Management Services Group. He is responsible for operations for AECOM’s work with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and government and commercial nuclear facilities in Europe, Asia, and Canada.

More specifically, Mr. Whitney oversees N&E-led operations in high-level radioactive waste (HLW) management at DOE’s Savannah River Site and the Hanford Site (Savannah River Remediation and Washington River Protection Solutions, respectively); the demolition and remediation of Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear facilities by URS | CH2M Oak Ridge at the East Tennessee Technology Park; Transuranic Waste disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, by the Nuclear Waste Partnership; and decontamination and decommissioning of the Dounreay Fast Reactor and operation of the Low-Level Waste Repository in the UK.  He also oversees N&E support for the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Project (WTP) and at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites across the U.S.

Prior to joining AECOM, Mr. Whitney spent 11 years as a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service with the DOE, serving in a variety of leadership positions, most recently as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. In addition, Mr. Whitney served as the acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management and the Manager of Environmental Management’s Oak Ridge Office. Within NNSA, he was the acting Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, where he oversaw the operations of the Department’s global nuclear security and nonproliferation programs, and Assistant Deputy Administrator for Nonproliferation and International Security.

He also served as the Executive Director of DOE’s Moscow Office, where he led the Department’s in-country activities on nuclear security, nonproliferation, and energy security, including power plant construction projects in Zheleznogorsk and Seversk that provided replacement heat and electricity capacity to enable the shutdown of the last Russian plutonium production reactors.

Previous positions include: President, Global Strategies Consulting; International Services Business Unit Manager, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); and Director of Russian Programs, Institute for International Cooperative Environmental Research — Florida State University (FSU).

Mr. Whitney is a graduate of DOE’s Nuclear Executive Leadership Training Program and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and an MBA in Finance & Investments.

Valerie is currently serving as Project Director of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) project for the Department of Energy. WTP is a $16.8 billion plant that will vitrify nuclear waste held in underground tanks at Hanford for safe long-term storage.

Valerie has held a variety of project management and leadership roles both on projects and corporate offices in her 28-year career at Bechtel.  She brings wide-ranging project experience to her assignments as she has filled both technical and management roles in multiple business units.

Prior to her current role, Valerie was Project Manager on the Uranium Processing Facility Project.  UPF is a $6.5 billion facility that will replace WWII era production facilities at the Y-12 Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Previous roles include Project Manager for the $5 billion Kitimat Modernization Project in British Columbia, Canada.  Completed in 2015, this remote camp project replaced an aging 60-year old aluminum smelter and boosts production levels while lowering overall emissions. She also served as Regional Manager of EPC Functions, based in Montreal, providing functional oversight to M&M projects in the North America, Europe, Africa and Middle East Region. Other roles include Project Manager for the Twin Metals Project, a $3 billion proposed underground copper, nickel and platinum group mining project in northern Minnesota; Project Manager for the SWC Coal Preparation Plant Upgrade Project in Australia; Deputy Program Manager for the $10 billion+ BHP/Bechtel Brisbane Hub as well as Business Manager for the $3 billion greenfield Guinea Alumina Project; and Deputy Project Manager on the $5 billion Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant Project.

Valerie holds a BS in Biology from the State University of New York, chairs the Inclusion and Diversity Council for Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security & Environmental Global Business Unit and is a member of Bechtel’s corporate Project Management Committee.

Morgan Smith is the president and the chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, which is responsible for the management and operation of the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A Bechtel executive, Smith joined CNS in 2014 to serve as the CNS chief operating officer and manage the operations of both sites.

Smith has more than 36 years of prior technical and managerial leadership experience within the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. He performed significant roles in planning and implementing the consolidation of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory into a single organization and, in 2014, applied that experience to initiate the consolidation of Pantex and Y-12 under one U.S. Department of Energy contract.

As general manager of Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory from 2009 through June 2014, Smith had direct management of that laboratory and co-managed the Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation in partnership with the general manager of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. He and his co-manager led approximately 7,000 employees—who performed nearly $2 billion of work annually at five sites for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program—under a joint contract with DOE and the Navy.

Smith also served as president of Bechtel Bettis, Inc., and as general manager of Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. He managed contracts with DOE and the Navy that had combined revenues of more than $600 million and approximately 3,500 employees at three main sites and eight major field offices. He also managed and oversaw resources for new reactor and propulsion plant design, component design and testing, materials development and testing, technical support for procurement of all Navy reactor cores, placement of spent fuel into dry storage, and new ship construction and operating fleet support.

As president and general manager of Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc., Smith managed approximately 900 employees at multiple sites with an annual operating budget of $110 million and annual subcontracts averaging approximately $600 million.

Smith’s career has been focused on leading disciplined nuclear operations and improving performance in high-risk environments. His technical background includes design; development; and fabrication of reactor control drive mechanisms, steam generators and refueling equipment.

Smith holds a B.S. in civil engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and has completed various project management and leadership development programs with Westinghouse, Bechtel and the University of Michigan.

Mr. Hall has many years of experience in technology development, program management, systems integration, process development, systems engineering, environmental restoration of nuclear chemical facilities and waste management. He is currently Executive Vice President and COO of L&L Associates, Inc. L&L Associates Inc. is headquartered in Orlando Florida and has expertise in developing successful program management and program strategies to accomplish complex technical and programmatic missions for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense

In his capacity of Executive Vice President of L&L Associates, Inc. Mr. Hall has served as interim Chief Operating Officer for Kaiser Hill Company at the Rocky Flats site from April 2001 until January 2002. In this position, his leadership helped to restore a positive working relationship with the DOE customer, raise the ESH&Q level of performance, and improve the cost and schedule earned value from a negative to a positive trend before turning his position over to his successor.

Mr. Hall has advised and assisted the DOE in technical baseline assessments of complex wide programs such as the WTP Best and Brightest External Pretreatment Flow sheet Review, the Bulk Vit External Review, and continues to serve as a technical advisor to the Department.

Mr. Hall has served as President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Hanford Corporation where he managed the Tank Waste Remediation Project. This project, which included storage, characterization, and future retrieval systems of over 55 million gallons of both high and low level radioactive waste in 177 underground storage tanks located in Richland Washington, was reengineered and set on a success path under his leadership. His responsibilities at Hanford also included site wide Information Resource Management and Systems Engineering functions supporting fifteen contractors with a workforce of over 8000 people.

Previous to the Hanford project, Mr. Hall was Vice President of Lockheed Martin Environmental Management and Enrichment (EMER) for five DOE sites located in 3 states (Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio) with a work force of approximately 7500 people and an annual operating budget of over $1 billion. Under his leadership, Environmental cleanup programs were initiated and enhanced in Groundwater Treatment and Remediation, Radiological and Chemical burial ground recovery and disposition, startup and operation of the first US-DOE TSCA incinerator and High Level and Low Level Nuclear Waste stabilization.

In collaboration with DOE, Mr. Hall led a first of its kind small business outsourcing program for over $200 million per year of environmental restoration work within East Tennessee. During his tenure, the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant received multiple awards for excellence including Al Gore’s Hammer Award for cost savings and a DOE Tiger Team rating of 89%. Under Mr. Hall’s leadership, the EMER program grew from $250M program to a $900M funding level. This accelerated all five sites towards Environmental compliance agreements and clean up of the DOE Gaseous Diffusion legacy waste.

From 1960 – 1990, Mr. Hall participated in the development of weapon systems and space programs for Martin Marietta of Orlando, FL. His Aerospace experience has included the design, test, production and fielding of numerous electronic and missile programs including space launched systems. Under Mr. Hall’s leadership, Martin Marietta developed and initiated a unique chemically controlled Zero Discharge System for environmentally compliant state of the art ultra-micro circuit development and processing. In 1986 he led the Martin Marietta Corporation in achieving regulatory compliance in its Baltimore, MD., Cape Canaveral, Orlando and Tennessee Operations. This effort involved designing, implementing or converting all Martin Marietta chemical processing operations and production operations into EPA and state of the art compliance. It also involved establishing remediation programs for burial grounds and groundwater cleanup. Mr. Hall’s Aerospace experience includes the THOR-Delta Space launch Systems, Pershing deployment, Copperhead, Hellfire, LANTIRN, CNCE, and Patriot systems. He provided the technical and project leadership to transform the Orlando Production Operations into a statistically controlled (SPC) Zero Defect Enterprise. These operations were granted one of the first Audit Free Status by DCAA.

Awards and Honors

Mr. Hall has received numerous awards, including a Hammer Award for enhanced work planning for Lockheed Martin Hanford. DOE-RL gave special recognition to Mr. Hall’s company at Hanford. His experience in both DOE and DoD facilities spans four EPA regions in the US. He is the recipient of seven Total Quality Management Awards (TQM) presented by the governor of Tennessee for work at the K25 facility. He has received the Hedgepeth Award for environmental conservation in the state of Florida. Mr. Hall has extensive experience in Leadership, Project Management and Programmatic Technical Proposal development. Mr. Hall has been an inspirational leader and mentor to many of the key personnel leaders in the DOE enterprise.

Education

BS in Mathematics/Engineering, Rollins College 1964
MS in Physics, Rollins College 1970
Advanced Study-Systems Eng., Univ. of Florida 1970-1975

Professional Activities

• Served on Secretary of Energy’s Quality Council
• Served as an appointee of the Florida Governor to the Florida State
• Emergency Response Commission
• Worked extensively with the EPA regions III, IV, V, X (Northwest) and 7 separate state Regulatory agencies.
• Board member of the Tri City Development Economic Council in
• Richland, WA
• Worked extensively with Congressional delegations
• Adjunct professor in mathematics in the Florida College System
• Served as an advisor to the Engineering Department at the University of Central Florida
• Board member for numerous community activities
• Director Emeritus of EFCOG and is one of the original members of this organization dedicated to contractor support to the DOE mission.

As Vice President and General Manager, Linda Kobel leads LATA-Sharp Remediation Services, LLC (LSRS), providing a unique blend of operations management, financial management and business development to the government (both DOE and DOD) and commercial industries.  LSRS is the  field execution arm of Los Alamos Technical Associates, one of the most successful small businesses in the DOE/NNSA environmental remediation services field, having performed over one billion dollars in environmental projects over the last 5 years alone.

With a strong knowledge of operations and financial management functions at the Department of Energy as well as both nuclear and fossil plant sites, she has an exceptional understanding of planning, integration and risk management required to maximize project success. In addition to leading LSRS, Ms. Kobel provides leadership, mentoring and oversight of LATA’s DOE portfolio, which currently represents over $450M in contract value and has managed the full spectrum of business services for two large DOE sites (Portsmouth and Paducah).

Prior to joining LATA, Linda was the President of Enercon Federal Services where she integrated companywide government operations and sales including planning, budgeting, forecasting and revenue management with a focus on compliance and project integration. As a Senior Vice President for EnergySolutions, she was responsible for providing strategic business solutions for DOE contracts including serving in concurrent roles as Business Manager for both the Portsmouth Environmental Remediation and Uranium Disposition Services contracts. She achieved outstanding personal and team results early in her career during her tenure with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.

From 1994 to 2008, Ms. Kobel was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Co-Founder of Link Resources, Inc., a global operations and management company that provides senior consulting services and facility operations to fossil and nuclear utilities, health care, insurance, manufacturing, technology, government and non-profit sectors, as well as DOE operations at sites such as Hanford, Oak Ridge National Labs, and Idaho.  At Link Resources, Ms. Kobel provided due  diligence and transition services to the power plant industry where her entrepreneurial and business instincts; along with clarity of strategy and vision, contributed to multiple companies’ continued growth and success.

Her blend of “big business and small business” experience, coupled with her passion for linking people, processes, and operations and how strategic business solutions can improve company efficiencies qualifies her as a unique candidate for contributing to EFCOG’s mission of promoting excellence in DOE Operations.

Linda holds a BBA in Management from Kennesaw State University.

As the MSTS President, Mark Martinez provides leadership and management direction for the effective and efficient execution of all operations at the Nevada National Security Site and leads development of a visionary and executable strategic plan.

Martinez has 30 years of experience managing complex and multidisciplinary nuclear, technical, business, operational and site services. He spent the past 23 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), most recently leading as Vice President and Principal Associate Director for Operations and Business, working to implement key strategic initiatives and operations and infrastructure improvements.

While at LLNL, Martinez gained both programmatic and operational expertise through diverse assignments and developed key relationships with employees and external stakeholders. He was a senior Test Director, responsible for executing LLNL experimental activities at the Nevada National Security Site, which encompassed comprehensive oversight of complex technical; construction; environment, safety and health; quality assurance; security; external communications; and other management functions for large-scale projects.  He also served as the Program Leader for the Nuclear Materials Technology Program, the Nevada Experiments and Operations Acting Program Leader, and the Deputy Principal Associate Director in the Weapons & Complex Integration.

Martinez has a strong background leading transformations. At LLNL’s Weapons and Complex Integration, he strengthened the rigor and changed the culture to a high-performing team. In addition, the National Nuclear Security Administration requested Martinez’s leadership in leading improvements in multi-nation nuclear defense experiments in Nevada.

As Business Manager and Chief Financial Officer for Savannah River Remediation LLC, Sandra Fairchild is responsible for all aspects of financial, procurement, contract, information technology and budget management affecting SRR, the Liquid Waste Contractor located at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The current contract value is $3.1 billion.

Ms. Fairchild has over 28 years of diversified experience in the fields of technical planning and controls management, procurement, contracts administration, accounting, earned value management, pension and benefits administration, information technology including cyber security, risk management and governmental negotiations. She is licensed by the state of South Carolina as a certified public accountant.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Fairchild was Chief Financial Officer for Washington Savannah River Company (WSRC) Liquid Waste contract and Management and Operations organizations. In these positions, her responsibilities involved the oversight of $1 billion annual operating programs with highly diverse missions.

During her career, she has held positions of increasing financial management responsibilities, including WSRC Operations Business Unit controller, with responsibilities for financial oversight of $500 million construction projects, and WSRC Closure Business Unit controller, where she had responsibilities for financial oversight of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration programs.

Prior to working at SRS, Ms. Fairchild was senior auditor for the South Carolina State Auditors Office. In that capacity, she had responsibility for oversight of companies receiving federal or state funding.

Ms. Fairchild is an honorary lifetime member of the Aiken Junior Women’s Club, a member of the Aiken High School Booster Club and serves as Treasurer for the Aiken Technical College Foundation.

Education

• College of Charleston Bachelor of Science, Business Administration
• Certified Public Accountant

Mr. Morrison is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in Electrical Engineering and has over thirty years of combined experience in executive management and managing operations, engineering, maintenance, safety, QA, and training and procedures programs. In December of 2011, Mr. Morrison was named President for EnergySolutions Government Group. In this role, Mr. Morrison was responsible for overall strategic direction and execution of all Government Services for EnergySolutions. In 2015/2016 Mr. Morrison helped secure the sale of the EnergySolutions Government Group to Atkins, an international nuclear business based in the UK. He served as Executive Vice President of Atkins Nuclear North American Group with overall strategic and operational responsibility for all Government and Commercial Services for North America. In September of 2016 Mr. Morrison accepted a position as President of Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services. In this role Mr. Morrison has overall responsibility for strategic direction and execution of all Federal Services in North America.

He also currently serves as the chairman of the EFCOG Board of directors along with memberships on various other boards. Past management assignments include Manager of the SRS Site Utilities Department, responsibilities included the oversight of Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering for production and distribution facilities for steam, domestic water, electrical distribution, fire water, sanitary wastewater collection and treatment, process water, river water, service water, chilled water, and deionized water at the Savannah River Site.  During his career he has provided leadership for several key Site initiatives to improve safety posture, cost effectiveness, and human performance.  Previous positions include Plant Manager of the Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF), with responsibilities for the safe and environmentally sound storage, treatment, and disposal of SRS TRU, Low-level, Hazardous, and Mixed Waste inventory.  He has also held positions as Maintenance and Engineering Manager for both the F-Area and H-Area Waste Handling Facilities, Operations Manager for both the F-Area Waste Handling Facility  and the SWMF, and Manager of Training and Procedures, QA, Radcon, and Safety Programs within the Operations Business Unit. Mr. Morrison also served as the Chief Engineer and Technology Manager for the Waste Management Area Project. In this capacity he lead the engineering and technical resources in support of Waste Management operations, projects and programs. Specifically, shift technical, process oversight, development and optimization, cognizant systems engineering, design authority, technical safety documentation, engineering studies, environmental regulatory and compliance issues and criticality analysis.

As Business Manager and Chief Financial Officer for Savannah River Remediation LLC, Sandra Fairchild is responsible for all aspects of financial, procurement, contract, information technology and budget management affecting SRR, the Liquid Waste Contractor located at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The current contract value is $3.1 billion.

Ms. Fairchild has over 28 years of diversified experience in the fields of technical planning and controls management, procurement, contracts administration, accounting, earned value management, pension and benefits administration, information technology including cyber security, risk management and governmental negotiations. She is licensed by the state of South Carolina as a certified public accountant.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Fairchild was Chief Financial Officer for Washington Savannah River Company (WSRC) Liquid Waste contract and Management and Operations organizations. In these positions, her responsibilities involved the oversight of $1 billion annual operating programs with highly diverse missions.

During her career, she has held positions of increasing financial management responsibilities, including WSRC Operations Business Unit controller, with responsibilities for financial oversight of $500 million construction projects, and WSRC Closure Business Unit controller, where she had responsibilities for financial oversight of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration programs.

Prior to working at SRS, Ms. Fairchild was senior auditor for the South Carolina State Auditors Office. In that capacity, she had responsibility for oversight of companies receiving federal or state funding.

Ms. Fairchild is an honorary lifetime member of the Aiken Junior Women’s Club, a member of the Aiken High School Booster Club and serves as Treasurer for the Aiken Technical College Foundation.

Education

• College of Charleston Bachelor of Science, Business Administration
• Certified Public Accountant