Perma-Fix Environmental Services President and CEO Lou Centofanti on Monday formally stepped down from the top spot he has held for more than two decades, 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 Monitor that the change serves his long-held goal of focusing more time on technology development. That will include shepherding technologies through to completion and working with clients on how to apply those systems.
“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.
Perma-Fix now employs more than 380 people at sites across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, with waste treatment facilities in four states. Its waste treatment services primarily involve radiologically contaminated material, with about 10 percent for other hazardous materials. The company’s broader environmental cleanup portfolio encompasses a range of nuclear services, including remediation and decontamination, decommissioning, and demolition. Along with private clients, it has has subcontracted for government organizations including the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program.
The company is working on a number of initiatives and technologies in the waste management sector, though it is too early to discuss specifics, Centofanti said.
“Some are fairly long term and some are fairly short term, I really don’t want to get into details of our technologies at the moment, the new stuff coming, until we’re really a little further down the road in terms of having things in place,” he said.
Centofanti acknowledged that one of those projects involves testing a new technology that could be used to treat radioactive waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state, but otherwise said he could not discuss the matter. Last November, he said that if testing is successful the company could in 2018 pursue a contract for treatment of some part of the up to 56 million gallons of waste that would otherwise be converted into a glass form at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at Hanford.
Along with his new title, Centofanti will remain the chairman of the supervisory board for Perma-Fix Medical, which is developing a new process for producing the medical isotope technetium-99m.
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.
Duff said his new position would involve additional strategic planning and pushing Perma-Fix into new markets, including taking on treatment of new waste streams and partnering with other companies to bid on cleanup jobs.
He acknowledged the financial troubles facing the company he now helms. In its latest earnings report, Perma-Fix reported $12.7 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2017, down from $14.8 million in the same period of 2016. However, it reported an operating loss of $1.1 million for the three-month period, a significant improvement from the $11.2 million loss a year ago.
The company has endured a steady stream of losses in recent quarters and years – including $13.99 million in 2016 and $1.9 million in 2015. Nonetheless, management has remained optimistic about upcoming opportunities, including increasing DOE spending on its nuclear cleanup complex, which could mean additional work for Perma-Fix.
“It may take a year or two before we really get healthy, But I think we’re on that path,” Duff said by telephone.
