Perma-Fix Environmental Services President and CEO Lou Centofanti on Monday formally stepped down from the top spot, replaced by the company’s chief operating officer.
Centofanti founded the Atlanta-based nuclear services and waste management provider in 1991, and served two extended stints as president and chief executive officer: February 1991 to September 1995, and March 1996 to the present. He will stay on as executive vice president of strategic initiatives and as an executive member of Perma-Fix’s board of directors, according to a company announcement.
Executive Vice President and COO Mark Duff is now chief executive officer.
Centofanti told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing that the change serves his long-held goal of focusing more time on technology and business development.
“As the company has grown, and where we are today, we’ve really been looking for someone to take over and run the company so I could take more time and focus on some of the development projects we have going,” Centofanti said in a telephone interview.
The company is working on a number of initiatives and technologies in the waste management sector, though it is too early to discuss specifics, he said.
Duff, 54, has been with Perma-Fix since June of last year, his latest move in a three-decade career in nuclear material management, treatment, and decommissioning. His prior position was project manager for the Department of Energy’s Paducah Remediation Contract for the shuttered uranium-enrichment facility in Paducah, Ky. That involved oversight of a five-year project worth $458 million, according to Duff’s official Perma-Fix biography.
His mission at Perma-Fix was “to support and help accelerate anticipated revenue growth and profitability,” the bio says.
Centofanti said Duff has largely been acting as CEO for eight months, and that Monday’s announcement made his status official.
