Two contractors in the Department of Energy nuclear complex have both named chief financial officers in recent days.
In a Monday news release, Bechtel said it has promoted Catherine Hunt Ryan to the position. Hunt Ryan previously served as CFO at Bechtel’s Oil, Gas & Chemicals business for more than two years and has been with the company for 11 years. She has also worked at Credit Suisse and the World Bank, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She will manage Bechtel’s finance operations, including controller, tax, and treasury functions.
“Catherine is uniquely suited to build on the strong legacy of the CFO role as both a financial steward and a catalyst for growth,” Bechtel Chairman and CEO Brendan Bechtel said in the release. “We welcome her fresh outlook on finance and strategy, as well as her passion for our work, to the leadership team.
Hunt Ryan succeeded longtime CFO Peter Dawson in September. Dawson, who was CFO for 14 years, held many leadership posts during his 40-year career at Bechtel, including president of the former Civil Infrastructure business. He will join the Bechtel board as a non-executive director effective Jan. 1, 2019.
In the same news release, the company said Mary McLaughlin, who leads engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) functions at the company, has been named to the Bechtel Group’s board.
McLaughlin has held a number of management posts in nearly 20 years at Bechtel, including overseeing construction of new natural gas-fueled power plants.
“Mary brings deep competence in project delivery and has been an outstanding leader at the project, business unit, and corporate levels, consistently contributing to the strong performance of Bechtel,” Brendan Bechtel said.
Bechtel is a major player in the DOE cleanup space, holding a long-term contract for construction of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. It is also one of the partners in AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation, holder of the current $5 billion-plus contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based consulting firm Longenecker & Associates has hired James Veres for its newly created post of chief financial officer and vice president of business operations, effective Oct. 22, according to a Monday news release.
Since 2011, Veres has been chief financial officer at BCS, a government services firm and subsidiary of Montero Williams International.
Veres has over 30 years of contract and business management experience, having been a partner at IBM following its acquisition of National Interest Security, where he held a senior vice president role. Veres was also CFO for Technology and Management Services (TMS) prior to its purchase in 2007 by National Interest Security.
Veres will be in charge of day-to-day financial management of L&A. He will also support the company’s portfolio of projects for the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
Longenecker, which was founded in 1989, is one of the key subcontractors for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B), which has a 10-year, $1.39 billion legacy cleanup contract at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Veres will be based out of Washington, D.C.
“As we grow, we know that our business management functions are an important part of success,” L&A CEO Bonnie Longenecker said in a press release. “We are proud to have James on board to lead these efforts and support our missions across the complex.”
