NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

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E-mail: opa@nrc.gov 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 08-081 April 22, 2008

NRC ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL MANAGEMENT CHANGES; 

AGENCY STRENGTHENED FOR COMING CHALLENGES 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale E. Klein Tuesday announced three key 

senior management changes, rounding out a series of long-planned top-level selections to better 

position the agency to prepare for challenges expected in the coming decade. 

Chairman Klein, with the approval of the Commission, chose Jim Dyer, now Acting 

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and on assignment from his post as director of the Office of 

Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), as the agency’s new CFO. Replacing Dyer at NRR is Eric 

Leeds, now deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Material, Safety and Safeguards (NMSS). 

Michael Johnson, now deputy director of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES), was 

selected as director of the Office of New Reactors. He succeeds Bill Borchardt who earlier was 

picked as the agency’s new Executive Director for Operations. All changes are effective May 2. 

 

“These changes bring tremendous talent to bear on areas important to the agency’s future. 

They are the direct result of the agency’s very thorough strategic succession planning process 

that develops and prepares new leaders for the agency,” said Klein. “It is important to keep a 

steady focus on the operation of existing reactors, as Dyer has during his tenure, and to ensure 

improvements in the licensing of new reactors under Bill Borchardt continue as even more 

applications arrive. It is critical to the overall efficient operation of the NRC that we have a 

sound financial underpinning and that we spend the money entrusted to our agency efficiently.” 

NRC Executive Director for Operations Luis Reyes noted that senior NRC leaders meet 

regularly to discuss succession issues at the agency’s top level, and the NRC has a very thorough 

career development program to train its future leaders. “Each of these individuals has proven 

themselves as effective managers for many years at the NRC and each will be an outstanding 

leader in these critical positions,” Reyes added. 

Last week Klein announced Borchardt’s appointment and said that Reyes had agreed to 

remain with the agency and not retire. He will return to Atlanta to again serve as Regional 

Administrator in the agency’s Region II office. That office hosts the agency’s new reactor 

construction inspection program, based there because the bulk of most anticipated new reactor 

license applications are in the South. 
Dyer, 56, is a 25-year veteran of the NRC and spent years in NRC’s regulatory arena, 

most recently heading NRR for over four years. In that capacity he was responsible for the safety 

of the existing fleet of 104 reactors and 33 research and test reactors. While he has a bachelor’s 

degree in chemistry, he also holds a master’s degree in business administration and an associate 

degree in accounting. He was deputy regional administrator in the agency’s Texas-based Region 

IV office and regional administrator in the Illinois-based Region III office. Before joining the 

NRC he was a nuclear submarine officer in the Navy and an engineering consultant and manager 

with TRACOR Inc. 

As CFO, he will be responsible for all the NRC's financial management activities, 

including maintaining an integrated accounting and financial management system, monitoring 

the execution of NRC's budget in relation to actual expenditures, and controlling the use of 

agency funds to uphold applicable laws and standards. The CFO also ensures compliance with 

the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act, and is responsible for implementing the Chief 

Financial Officers Act and the Government Performance and Results Act at the NRC. Dyer 

succeeds Bill McCabe who took a similar position with the Department of Health and Human 

Services. 

Leeds, 49, began his career in the Navy as a nuclear officer. In his new role he will 

oversee operating commercial nuclear power plants and research and test reactors. He joined the 

NRC in 1984 in NRR, serving in a variety of engineering and inspection areas. He began in the 

agency’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in 1999. The next year he 

became the Special Projects branch chief in the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards 

within NMSS. In 2003 he became deputy director of the Division of Licensing Project 

Management in NRR, and in 2004 he was assigned as director of the Division of Preparedness 

and Response in the agency’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response. He became the 

deputy in NMSS in February 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from 

Villanova University. 

Johnson, 51, currently serves as the deputy director of RES, the agency office that plans 

and executes research supporting NRC programs. He has held that post since April 2007. He 

joined the NRC in 1986 as a reactor operations engineer and has held increasingly responsible 

positions in NRR since then. His assignments have included deputy director of the Division of 

Inspection Program Management, the Division of Inspection Program Management and the 

Division of Systems Safety and Analysis. From 2005 to 2006 he was Director of the Office of 

Enforcement, and before accepting the position in RES he worked as the assistant for operations 

in the EDO office. He is a graduate of the NRC’s Senior Executive Service Candidate 

Development Program. He received a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering from the U.S. 

Naval Academy and served in the nuclear submarine force for seven years. 

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