Hanford Site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) said Wednesday it has named a new vice president and a leader for the HAMMER federal training center.
Karen McGinnis, who has led the development and then operation of HAMMER for 27 years, will retire in June. Paul Vandervert will become director of the facility effective June 7. Vandervert has been involved with HAMMER for 26 years, starting when its concept and design were being developed. He has served as operations manager since HAMMER opened in 1997. HAMMER offers a wide variety of training for Hanford workers on its 88-acre campus and also collaborates with military organizations and the Department of Homeland Security, among others.
Rick Millikin has been named the new vice president for portfolio management at MSA. He will replace Steve Young, who will retire on June 15. A discrimination and whistleblower lawsuit against the executive and MSA ended in an $8.1 million jury verdict in October 2017 in favor of Young’s former employee, Julie Atwood. The verdict is being appealed.
Young worked for MSA for seven years and at Hanford for more than three decades. Millikin comes to MSA from CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., the site’s central plateau cleanup contractor, where he most recently served as the vice president of prime contract and project integration. Millikin has more than 28 years of business and management experience.
Mission Support Alliance holds a 10-year contract through May 2019 valued at about $3 billion to provide site-wide services at Hanford. Its responsibilities include security, emergency response, fleet and road maintenance, utilities, information technology and portfolio management, which helps the Department of Energy make informed decisions on work across all contracts at the site.
