Former National Security Council and Department of Energy senior staffer Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is the White House’s choice to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration, informed sources told NS&D Monitor this week.
If confirmed by the Senate, Gordon-Hagerty would replace Frank Klotz, a retired Air Force general and Obama administration holdover who has headed the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch since 2014.
Several candidates have recently remained under consideration by Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the White House, one source said. That list included Fluor executive Paul Longsworth, a former NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation whose name has been mentioned in the mix for the top job since the beginning of the Trump administration.
The source made clear that Gordon-Hagerty was the White House’s favorite among the potential nominees. A former senior DOE official on Friday added, after speaking with several officials at the department, that the announcement of her selection was expected “any day now.”
Gordon-Hagerty, founder and CEO of the nuclear- and national security-focused LEG Inc. consulting firm, declined to comment when reached Friday by NS&D Monitor. The NNSA referred questions to the White House, which did not comment by deadline.
The White House has not yet announced its intention to nominate the next NNSA administrator, much less submitted the actual nomination to the Senate. The administration is still waiting on Senate confirmation of USAA executive and former DOE staffer Dan Brouillette as deputy energy secretary. The NNSA chief, who also serves as undersecretary of energy for nuclear security, could theoretically be in the next set of nominees from DOE.
A former physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, Gordon-Hagerty spent six years in two senior DOE positions during the 1990s: director of the Office of Emergency Response, where she led efforts on emergency readiness and response for nuclear or radiological incidents; and acting director of the Office of Weapons Surety, lead official for ensuring the safety and security of the U.S. nuclear arms program.
She moved to the NSC staff in 1998 as director for combatting terrorism, according to her official biography. Gordon-Hagerty then moved into the private sector, joining enriched uranium fuel supplier USEC Inc. in 2003 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. She was terminated in 2005.
The next NNSA administrator will lead an entity with a roughly $14 billion annual budget, the large majority of it for operations to sustain the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Along with its headquarters operation in Washington, D.C., it oversees work at eight sites around the country.
