SIMCO Leadership

 

Ken Harrawood

President & Program Manager

Ken Harrawood is SIMCO’s President and Program Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
Ken is an accomplished executive with more than 36 years of project/program management experience gained within the nuclear and hazardous waste industries, both domestic and international. He proudly served in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power program for eight years. Subsequently, he has developed broad DOE complex-wide environmental cleanup experience while at several of the generator sites that ship to WIPP, including those throughout the western U.S. He was responsible for the safe startup of operations at the DOE’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project located at the Idaho National Laboratory and the transuranic waste program at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Ken has also held key leadership roles at the DOE’s Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state; the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Colorado; the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the West Valley Demonstration Site in New York state; and at the Sellafield Site in the United Kingdom.
Prior to joining SIMCO, Ken served as the Program Manager for the Bechtel-led team at the U.S. Department of Defense’s first-of-a-kind Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado where he was responsible for the safe destruction of more than 780,000 World War II-era chemical weapons munitions. Ken holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Technology from Excelsior College.

 

Mike Rocha

Vice President & Baseline Integration Manager

Mike Rocha is a SIMCO Vice President and the Baseline Integration Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
He has more than 30 years of progressive business management experience in field and corporate leadership roles on complex projects in the government and commercial nuclear, security, and environmental cleanup sectors.
Mike’s business acumen extends to all facets of deployed project controls, estimating, performance, finance and accounting, and associated services to support large-scale engineering, design, construction, and operations for DOE, Department of Defense, and commercial industry projects.
Before joining SIMCO, he served as a senior manager at the Vogtle units 3 & 4 plants in Georgia, a Bechtel-led project to finish construction of the first new nuclear power plants to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from California State University at Chico. His professional certifications include: master in Project Controls, Assistant Project Manager, Six Sigma Champion and Yellow Belt.

 

Tammy Hobbes

Vice President & WIPP Operations Manager

Tammy Hobbes is a SIMCO Vice President and the Operations Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
She brings proven leadership with more than 34 years of experience in government-related nuclear operations and project management including facility startups and conversions throughout the Western United States.
Tammy’s highly technical background and in-depth understanding of nuclear industry regulatory requirements is evident as she led the start, and subsequent 10 years, of remote-handled transuranic waste shipments to WIPP from the Idaho Cleanup Project at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory Site.
The WIPP and its workforce benefit from her broad experience in project management, environmental remediation, waste management, and nuclear operations gained in Idaho; the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; DOE’s Waste Treatment & Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Southeastern Washington state; and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratory in Ontario.
Tammy holds a Master’s in Nuclear Engineering from Idaho State University, a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University and is a graduate of the Officers Naval Nuclear Power School.

 

Ted Sherry

Vice President & Performance Improvement Manager

Ted Sherry is a SIMCO Vice President and the Performance Improvement Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
He has more than 35 years of experience as a U.S. Navy officer, a federal manager with the DOE and its National Nuclear Security Administration, and in senior leadership positions on contractor teams performing essential operations for national security and environmental management efforts.
Ted’s expertise in performance improvement includes transforming and institutionalizing best work practices, conditions, and excellence activities as well as implementing robust performance measures, reporting systems, and tools to help teams achieve mission success.
Ted also brings in-depth knowledge from key roles at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Before joining SIMCO, he served as a vice president of Performance Excellence with Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, which is responsible for the management and operation of the Pantex Plant and Y-12.
Ted holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University.

 

Mike Marksberry

Vice President & Mining/Underground Operations Manager

Mike Marksberry is a SIMCO Vice President and the Mining/Underground Operations Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
He brings nearly 40 years of diverse management experience in all facets of underground mining engineering, construction, and operations throughout the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.
Before joining SIMCO, Mike served as the Mine Area manager for the world's largest potash project in Saskatchewan, Canada, and as a mining risk consultant to the insurance industry. His mining career spans large, complex mines in the underground coal industry, and the underground industrial minerals industry including salt, limestone, and potash.
Mike is focused on innovative approaches to worker safety, continuous improvement, and deploying leading-edge techniques. These include the commissioning and evaluation of prototype coal mining equipment; lunar mining research; the construction  of North America’s only limestone mine with worker and production shaft access; the installation of North America’s first direct-drive induction-motor hoist; the first salt mine’s use of a Joy (Komatsu) flexible conveyor train; the use of hydrostatic-welded steel liners to rehabilitate shafts; and the use of optical sorting for high-volume salt quality upgrading.
Mike holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Mining Engineering from Penn State University.

 

Ryan Flynn

Vice President & Environment, Safety, and Health Manager

Ryan Flynn is a SIMCO Vice President and the Environment, Safety and Health Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Ryan’s previous experience includes leading environmental and safety programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Hanford Site. He previously served as the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resource Trustee for the State of New Mexico. Ryan served as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the United States Air Force Reserve and the New Mexico Air National Guard.
He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, his law degree from the University of Arizona, and a project management certificate from Cornell University.

 

Brandon Jones

Capital Asset Projects Manager

Brandon Jones is a SIMCO Capital Asset Project Manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. He brings more than 20 years of experience, including construction planning, and work execution program management on large, complex new commercial nuclear power generation, defense-related infrastructure, and disaster recovery projects. This experience extends to labor relations, field craft management, and subcontracts management. Before joining SIMCO, he held roles of increasing responsibility at the Vogtle units 3 & 4 plants in Georgia, a Bechtel-led project completing construction and startup of the first new nuclear power plants to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years. His roles at Vogtle included key field management positions responsible for site civil program management, electrical program management, and integrated testing, analyses, and acceptance criteria. He has also previously held construction leadership roles for Fukushima nuclear plant upgrades, and construction engineering roles for U.S. military’s Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq. He studied civil engineering at Louisiana State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree.