Cathy Hickey has departed her post as president of Westinghouse Government Services, 17 months after the company opened a new office just outside of Washington, D.C., to increase its visibility within the Energy Department contracting world.
Hickey “chose to leave via a voluntary separation package,” Westinghouse Electric spokeswoman Sarah Cassella said by email Wednesday. Company executive Bob Cochran has replaced her and Hickey has already been hired at another DOE contractor, Navarro Research and Engineering.
There were rumors, but no confirmation this week, of other personnel changes at Westinghouse Government Services.
A familiar face in the Energy Department nuclear complex, Hickey in June 2016 assumed the leadership position at the Westinghouse subsidiary focused on bringing in major contracts from the agency. As it opened its Arlington, Va., office a year later, Westinghouse said the new location would refresh the company’s “decades-long legacy of supporting vital U.S. government operations.”
Westinghouse Government Services is partnering on one current DOE cleanup contract and could know soon whether it will share in a big-money award for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Further details about Hickey’s departure from the company were not available. Reached briefly this week by telephone, she directed any comments on Westinghouse Government Services to Cochran.
Hickey on Nov. 1 started work as Navarro executive vice president, working out of its Oak Ridge, Tenn., headquarters, a company spokesperson said by email on Nov. 2. She succeeds Bob Eby, who will remain with the company on a part-time basis.
The rumors regarding Hickey’s exit fall into two different categories, one industry source said Thursday. One is the new owner of Westinghouse Electric wanted to pick its own management; another is Hickey simply tired of living around Washington, D.C.
A second industry source believes it is the latter, saying Hickey has a home and family in Tennessee and was tired of commuting to and from Arlington. The move also allows Eby, who has been in the industry for 42 years, to gradually scale back his role with Navarro.
Hickey has more than 30 years of management experience in the DOE environmental remediation sector. She has also worked at Bechtel, CH2M Hill, and URS Corp. Her longest tenure was at Bechtel, where she spent 21 years in various roles, from 1982 through 2003, according to her LinkedIn profile.
A woman-owned subcontractor in the DOE complex, Navarro is involved in remediation, decommissioning and demolition, and waste management projects. Navarro currently holds the five-and-half year contract, valued at $80 million, for the environmental services at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
“We are very excited to welcome Cathy to our team. Her industry knowledge and demonstrated leadership will strengthen our business growth strategy.” Susana Navarro-Valenti, president and founder of Navarro, said in a press release. “Cathy’s role will be to lead Navarro’s strategic growth initiatives.”
In her new post, Hickey will provide strategic business development support, community engagement, and pursue strategic partnerships to strengthen Navarro’s presence in the federal market.
Once a U.S. manufacturing giant, Westinghouse Electric was sold to Toshiba in 2006. In March 2017, Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, months before two major Westinghouse-designed nuclear reactors being built in South Carolina were canceled.
The Bermuda-based global asset management firm Brookfield Business Partners, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, announced in January it would buy Westinghouse from Toshiba for $4.6 billion. The deal closed in August and marked Westinghouse Electric’s emergence from bankruptcy.
As of deadline Friday, Cassella had not responded to questions regarding rumors that other senior managers at the Westinghouse affiliate have also exited. It was not clear if the shakeup at Westinghouse Government Services was part of any new direction at its parent company under Brookfield.
Westinghouse Government Services is a partner with Fluor in pursuit of the liquid waste services contract at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The initial award went to a BWX Technologies-led team last October but was later reopened after an AECOM-CH2M venture filed a successful bid protest. The Energy Department received updated proposals from the three ventures this spring.
Westinghouse Government Services is also a member of the Atkins-led Mid-America Conversion Services team, which holds a $319 million, five-year contract through January 2022 to run depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
The firm has continued to look for new business in the DOE complex, sending representatives to industry briefings in August for the management of the Hanford Site’s 222-S laboratory.
Cochran has been a director for Westinghouse Government Services for about 18 months, Cassella said. “Bob has had an accomplished career successfully leading and growing major government services businesses in the Department of Energy and broader federal market.”
Cochran served as president of Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group from 2006 to 2011 and in the same position for CB&I Federal Services from 2013 to 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. He is also a former chairman of the Energy Facility Contractors Group
