Who is LLNS, and who controls it?
From llnsllc.com
Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) is managed by a board of governors, a group of key scientific, academic, national security and business leaders from the LLNS partner companies.
Chairman - Norman Pattiz. A UC Regent and chairs the Regents’ Committee on Oversight of the DOE Laboratories for LANL, LLNL, and LBNL. He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Westwood One.
Vice Chairman - Craig Alber. President of Bechtel Systems & Infrastructure, Inc. and Senior Vice President of Bechtel Group, Inc.
Steven Beckwith is the UC’s vice president for research and graduate studies.
William Frazer is senior vice president, emeritus of UC and professor of physics emeritus, UC Berkeley.
John Gordon served as the first administrator of NNSA and undersecretary of the DOE, responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
John Howanitz is the general manager of Nuclear Security & Allied Governments for Bechtel National, Inc.
Donald Kintzer is currently associated with Korora Partners, a Silicon Valley based consulting company focused on general business advisory and executive coaching/mentoring services. He currently serves as a member of the LBNL Contract Assurance Council.
Steven Koonin served as the second Under Secretary for Science at DOE, spent 5 years as Chief Scientist for BP, 10 years as Caltech Provost. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the JASON advisory group.
Glenn Mara is the vice president laboratory management, UC Office of the President. He is responsible for the University's management oversight of LLNL, LANL, and LBNL.
Richard Mies is the president and chief executive officer of Hicks and Associates, Inc. He serves concurrently as the deputy group manager of the Transformation, Training, Test and Logistics Group at SAIC.
David Pethick is president of the Energy & Environment Business Group of URS Corporation's Washington Division.
Ellen Tauscher is Strategic Advisor for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. Tauscher served as a Special Envoy for Strategic Stability and Missile Defense with the State Department and as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. She represented California’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
Bruce Varner is a UC Regent.
Jeff Wadsworth is the senior executive responsible for Battelle’s laboratory management business. He was the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He served 10 years as a senior manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
David Walker is a senior vice president and manager of the functions and finance in Bechtel's U.S. Government business unit.
Craig Weaver is Managing Director of Bechtel Management Company Limited the UK subsidiary of Bechtel Systems and Infrastructure Inc.
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By my count;
University of California = 5
Bechtel = 4
URS = 1
Battelle = 1
Independent = 5
So isn't UC the controlling partner in LLNS?
Comments
May 3, 2013 at 7:50 PM
The definition of "for-profit" is that the corporation makes a profit. What is not to understand? You need to understand that there is no longer an entity called "the Lab." All there is, is a corporation (LLNS) formed by a consortium of "parent companies" (or parent entities, if you must, since UC is not a "company"), and a facility (LLNL) owned by the federal government (NNSA). The corporation is under contract to the government to operate the facility. You do not work for "the Lab" since it does not exist as an entity; you work for the corporation (LLNS) that runs the facility. Bechtel is one of the "parent companies", and although it is the largest in terms of world-wide reach outside of LLNS, it is not the managing partner in the corporation; UC is. So the money does not "go to Bechtel," it goes to LLNS and is distributed to the LLNS partners (including Bechtel) according to the partnership agreement (to which we are not privy). Get it now?
May 3, 2013 at 8:37 PM
No, they are the payers of the contract fee. By legal contract. Get over your socialism.
May 4, 2013 at 5:20 PM
You still don't get it. UC gets more money than Bechtel from the LLNS contract.
1. They brought in partners to oversee the business practices, environment control and security. They kept oversight of the "science". If we ignore the NIF fiasco, most if not all of the NNSA complaints about the lab have been over the non-science related functions. Thus, UC can pass the buck to their compatriots and state 'handle it'.
2. UC no longer has a bunch of people to take care of within their retirement plan.
3. UC no longer has to worry about the Lab's benefits.
4. UC is making more money, with possibly less work and worry than they were prior to the contract change.
So while we complain about Bechtel raking in the coin and treating the employees shabbily, UC doesn't have clean hands in this affair as well.
All true.
It is disappointing that UC has lost it's sense of stewardship over the labs....but I guess we can't really lay that at the feet of UC, since they didn't chose this path, congress/DOE/NNSA forced the change.
The repercussions have been very noticeable.
BTW, the Directors of LANL, LLNL and SNL will be testifying to a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces committee on Tues, May 7 at 2:30 pm EDT regarding the management of the NNSA labs. Should be interesting to hear what they have to say. I doubt they will attack the hand that feeds them their big executive salaries.
The Senate live webcast site is here:
www.armed-services.senate.gov/
The testimony might also eventually end up getting posted at the NNSA Testimony site:
nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/
congressionaltestimony
May 8, 2013 at 2:27 AM
Sorry, if the posters are Bechtel (AKA LLNS) employees, it tells you loads about Bechtel.
May 11, 2013 at 3:30 PM
First, LLNS is controlled by UC, not Bechtel, Second, it just tells you that LLNS does not coddle their employees. Self-entitled employees are the bane of the Lab.