New Y-12/Px Contractor Says Retirement Due to ‘Family Medical Situation’
Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
6/27/2014
Bechtel executive Jim Allen, who was bid to be the chief operating officer for Y-12/Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security, is retiring and will not assume his role as the No. 2 official for the new contractor. CNS spokesman Jason Bohne said this week that a “family medical situation” is preventing Allen from continuing in the position, and he will be replaced by Bechtel executive Morgan Smith, who, like Allen, helped Bechtel consolidate the Bettis and Knolls atomic power laboratories. CNS is set to take over the Y-12/Pantex contract July 1. Following a switch involving planned Pantex manager Dan Glenn in April, Allen is the second senior CNS official that has been replaced before the contractor takes over. “This is a challenging time to make a change at this level of the CNS organization, but it is the right decision for Jim, and I fully support Jim and his family,” CNS President Jim Haynes said in a June 24 message to employees. “True to his character, Jim has served us well through the transition and has prepared the way for his replacement.”
Haynes said Allen will continue working with CNS as a consultant. “Since Jim Allen first joined CNS as Chief Operating Officer (COO), I have relied on his insight, experience, and judgment,” he said. “For over a year, Jim has balanced the heavy demands of preparing for the COO role while also coping with a serious family medical situation and its ongoing ramifications. He has done a superb job on both fronts, and I admire him for his energy and commitment. After many months, however, the competing demands of his personal situation and his position as COO—along with multiple contract delays—have led Jim to choose to retire.”
CNS Cites Smith Experience in Bettis, Knolls Consolidation
Smith most recently served as Bechtel’s top official at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory after also heading up Knolls before management of the sites was consolidated. Bohne said Smith’s experience at Bettis and Knolls would serve him well helping merge the Y-12/Pantex contracts. “His responsibilities there closely match the scale and complexity of the operations at Pantex and Y-12,” Haynes said. “Morgan also had a key role in planning and implementing the successful consolidation of the Bettis and Knolls Laboratories into a single organization. His experience in developing common HR and operating systems for the 7,000-employee workforce will be particularly useful over the coming years. Morgan is rapidly coming up to speed and has already participated in readiness reviews and scenario planning with the CNS management team and our client.”
Will CNS be Penalized?
It’s unclear if CNS will be penalized for replacing Allen, but a clause in the company’s contract would appear to allow the National Nuclear Security Administration to take action due to the change. The contract states that unless a change is approved in advance by the contracting officer, if any key personnel are “removed, replaced, or diverted by the Contractor for reasons under the Contractor’s control” in the first two years of the contract the company forfeits two years of the reimbursable annual salary, bonuses and relocation costs in fee for that position, which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Bohne, the CNS spokesman, said NNSA signed off on the move, but he said he did not have any information about whether the contractor would be penalized. “There’s been no determination on that,” Bohne said, adding: “That’s not anybody’s focus right now. We’re all getting ready for successful transition and managing the sites after July 1.”
