The White House’s pick to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration will meet next week with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who might still be pursuing other candidates for the job, sources told NS&D Monitor this week.
Sources said late last month that Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is the White House’s choice to replace Obama administration holdover Frank Klotz, a retired Air Force general who has led the semiautonomous Energy Department agency since 2014.
Gordon-Hagerty, founder and CEO of the consulting firm LEG Inc., is a former physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California who served at DOE headquarters for six years during the 1990s as director of the Office of Emergency Response and as acting director of the Office of Weapons Surety, in charge of ensuring the safety and security of the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
She then became the National Security Council’s director for combatting terrorism in 1998, later joining enriched uranium fuel supplier USEC Inc. as executive vice president and chief operating officer – a position from which she was terminated in 2005.
Sources said this week that while the White House prefers Gordon-Hagerty, Perry continues to consider other names such as Fluor executive Paul Longsworth, former NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, and Willie Clark, federal business development manager at Burns & McDonnell.
One source said Gordon-Hagerty did not have a successful track record in the private sector and is therefore a surprising pick for an otherwise business-minded administration. USEC struggled under her leadership and eventually paid her to step down, the source said. A USEC filing with the SEC in March 2006 said she was paid $1.2 million upon termination.
Reached by phone on Friday, Gordon-Hagerty declined to comment on whether she would be meeting with Perry next week and whether her background with USEC would have an impact on the nomination process.
Gordon-Hagerty’s nomination has not yet been announced; according to one individual, the administration likely will hold off on the decision until USAA executive and former DOE staffer Dan Brouillette is confirmed by the Senate as deputy energy secretary.
