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LANL employee-owned LLC

I have a serious question, and hope that it will spark some actual discussion on its merits.

Should LANL (LANS) employees consider creating a 100% wholly "employee owned" LLC to bid on the LANL contract. 

A model for this could be Parsons Engineering - with 15,000 employees it is an engineering, construction, technical, and management services firm with revenues of $3.2 billion in 2015 and is 100% owned by its employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Trust. 

Let's say our new company is called "Oppenheimer Engineering LLC" and is 100% LANL employee owned through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). 

Oppenheimer Engineering would then "team" with academic partners (e.g., Purdue, Univ of Chicago, UNM, etc.) and "subcontract" specific work to industrial firms (e.g., Lockheed-Martin, Grumman, Parson, etc) in the bid on the LANL M&O contract. The annual contract management and award fees would serve as the basis for funding the ESOP. The non-profit partners would get a share of the fee, while the industrial for-profit subcontractor would be paid for the specific services they provided. LANL operations and employee salary cost would continue to be paid/reimbursed through the M&O contract.

There's some good information on the National Center for Employee Ownership website at www.nceo.org 
http://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100

Comments

Anonymous said…
And if you think this cockamamie idea has a snowball's chance, I have a very attractive array of bridges I'd like you to look at.
Anonymous said…
This is the second stupid idea that has been floated recently. The other one was to have PAD Wallace be Director on a bid team. Must be crazy season in New Mexico.
Anonymous said…
The other one was to have PAD Wallace be Director on a bid team. Must be crazy season in New Mexico.

My God, that is just insane.
Anonymous said…
Well get the employees to pool some of their personal capital to underwrite the proposal process and make a go of it.
Anonymous said…
The other one was to have PAD Wallace be Director on a bid team. Must be crazy season in New Mexico.

My God, that is just insane.

April 5, 2016 at 8:12 PM


Wouldn't be the first time that inmates plotted to take over the asylum.
Anonymous said…
April 5, 2016 at 8:12 PM


Not sure that anyone with knowledge would attempt to defend the current structure; however, there are worse options. If the choice was to continue with the present contract or go with Dr. Wallace as Director, suspect that most employees would prefer to remain with the devil that they know.
Anonymous said…
Can we raise medical marijuana on site?
Anonymous said…
My share is for sale. The opening bid is I'llpay £ 23 for someone to buy it.
Anonymous said…
PAD Wallace as director wouldn't even be part of thisidea since he is part of the problem.
Anonymous said…
If there were any internal candidates to lead LANL the lab would not be in this situation. There were no viable internal candidates at the last contract change, and that hasn't changed. Last time there were two bid teams, one led by managers from SNL and the other from LLNL. While an ESOP might make sense sometime in the future, the more urgent issue is to grow a cadre of internal managers that are competent in the next fifteen years.
Anonymous said…
There were no viable internal candidates at the last contract change...

April 8, 2016 at 10:59 AM

Some obviously considered Anastasio to be a "viable candidate," but he certainly wasn't a "viable" Director. He was unseen, uninvolved, and uninterested, simply padding his retirement income.
Anonymous said…
What you don't know about Anastasio is that he had to step down from his position because his prostitute stole his "classified" laptop from his home in Santa Fe. His wife has since divorced him and he still lives in Santa Fe and holds a security clearance. He occasionally testifies before Congress.

This was kept from the public but if you go to Washington, DC they are very well informed about this subject!
Anonymous said…
April 8, 2016 at 3:50 PM

What BS. I still see Mike and Ann in SF quite often. I've known both of them for many years. Go bark up another tree.
Anonymous said…
3:50. Doesn't sound like the Anastasio I know. The one I know never appears before Congress.
Anonymous said…
Novel idea. But since it doesn't exist, how does it bidon the GOCO contract?
Anonymous said…
"Mr(s) Musk, Cuban and Gordon, our Y Combinator proposal is to form an employer ESOP to take over the management of the nuclear stockpile stewardship of the USA al LANL. It includes the opportunity to commercially develop long-lived rare isotope actinide batteries. When teamed with SpaceX, it gives your companies much more punch. The local production capabilities and inventory make Y Combinator the 6th largest nuclear weapons producer. We only need € 10M for a 9% share, and seat on the board of directors. Do we have a deal?"
Anonymous said…
April 9, 2016 at 11:00 PM

I really like your passion and creativity but what I cant get my head around is that the risk is just to great and there is no upside and is for that reason I'm out. Good luck.

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