Expert Speakers

Paul Murphy serves as Senior Counsel for Bechtel Power Corporation, supporting both the Nuclear and Fossil business lines as a transactional attorney.  He is Bechtel’s most experienced nuclear industry lawyer in legal, licensing, policy, and nuclear liability matters. During his career at Bechtel, Mr. Murphy has received international recognition for his work in the development and financing of nuclear power programs, with a particular emphasis on situations involving countries seeking to develop initial units for peaceful use of nuclear energy.  He is recognized as an expert in these fields by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency, and the U.S. government.  His international work centers on strategies for creating viable nuclear power programs, and on the identification and mitigation of risks associated with developing such programs.

At the request of the IAEA, Paul has served as a designated expert at several special meetings of the IAEA in Vienna, Austria.  

Mr. Murphy is a graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs and a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Dimitri Nikas is a director at Standard & Poor’s Utilities & Infrastructure Ratings. Dimitri is part of the Electric Utilities team and is responsible for covering a number of large investor owned utilities operating primarily along the southeastern United States, including Duke Energy Corp., Southern Co., Entergy Corp., and Progress Energy Inc.

Prior to joining the Utilities, Power & Project Finance group in 1998, Dimitri worked as a senior software engineer at Motorola’s Paging Division, in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Dimitri holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Stern School of Business of New York University. In addition, Dimitri holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York.

Masoud Bajestani is Vice President of Watts Bar 2.  Prior to Watts Bar, Masoud led the successful restart of TVA’s U1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.  He has 28 years of experience in the electric power industry.

Bajestani began his career in 1979 with Toledo Edison where he served in various positions from Assistant Engineer to Senior Engineer until 1985.  In 1985 he worked as Senior Engineer at Surry Nuclear Power Plant, Virginia Power until 1986.

Bajestani began his TVA career in 1986 as a lead electrical maintenance engineer at TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.  He served in various positions including Technical Support Manager and Restart Manager at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant from 1987 to 1991.  He transferred to Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 1994 and served in various management positions including Start-Up and Test Manager and Assistant Plant Manager.  In February of 1997 he returned to Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant as the Plant Manager.  In June of 1997 he became the Site Vice President at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant and served there until July of 2000.  He transferred to the Fossil Power Group in 2000 as the Senior Vice President of Fossil Operations where he served until 2006 when he became VP, Unit 1 Restart at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Bajestani graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1979 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering.  He attended the University of Toledo and obtained a M.S. Degree in Industrial Engineering in 1982.  From 1984 to 1986 he served as a part-time instructor at the College of Engineering Technology.  Bajestani has three daughters and two sons.

Mark Marano was appointed to his current position on March 9, 2009.  His previous position was Senior Vice President Sales / Marketing for Commercial Nuclear Business at Burns and Roe Enterprises Inc.

Marano has also served as Senior Vice President Marketing, Commercial /Risk Management and Business Development at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.  In this position he was responsible for all inorganic and organic growth initiatives for the global nuclear business, including mergers & acquisitions, strategic partnerships, alliances, joint ventures and dispositions.  This included strategy development, origination, structuring, valuation and negotiation on acquisitions and dispositions.

Other positions held include Vice President Uranium Business Unit at (GE) Global Nuclear Fuels, Vice President,  Financial Planning at AEP Service Corporation and
Vice President of Business Services for both the fossil and nuclear generation fleet at AEP Generation.  

Marano began his career at AEP as Director of the Business Services and Support group and served as President/CEO of two of AEP’s competitive businesses: United Sciences Testing Inc. and Numanco LLC.

Prior to joining AEP, Marano worked at Florida Power Corporation, Carolina Power and Light’s Brunswick Nuclear Plant, PSEG’s Hope Creek and Salem Nuclear stations and as a Pricing Analyst and Industrial Engineer for several New York state companies, including a large defense contractor (Grumman Aerospace). 

Marano earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from State University of New York, College of Oswego, and is completing his MBA from the New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York.

Mr. Lloyd has 33 years of experience with Southern Company. He has held various management positions throughout the engineering, generation, and nuclear organizations. He worked at Plant Vogtle on the construction and project management staff for Units 1 & 2 and was at the Vogtle site during the final year of construction/startup, the first fuel cycle and the first refueling outage. He previously was General Manager of New Generation Projects in Engineering and Construction Services, supporting the development, design, procurement, and construction of new generating facilities for Southern Company. He is currently the Vogtle 3&4 Project Support Director and has been integrally involved with project development, licensing activities and negotiation of the EPC contract.

Luis A. Reyes is the Regional Administrator for the Region II U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office located in Atlanta, GA. Prior to his current assignment he was the Executive Director for Operations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Mr. Reyes joined the NRC in February 1978, as a Reactor Inspector in the Region III Office located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. He held progressively more responsible positions in Region III and subsequently in the Region II Office located in Atlanta, Georgia.  He served as the first Senior Resident Inspector at the Davis-Besse site for which he received the Meritorious Service Award. Prior to joining the NRC, Mr. Reyes worked for the Argonne National Laboratory at the Experimental Breeder Reactor II facility located at the Idaho Engineering Laboratory.

Mr. Reyes received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science Degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico.  Mr. Reyes has also completed post-graduate work in Fusion Energy. 

Mr. Reyes is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute. He has attended the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and has received the Presidential Meritorious Rank Awards in 1991, 1999, and 2003. In 2007 he received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the highest award that can be given to a member of the Senior Executive Service. In 2008 Hispanic Business Magazine selected Mr. Reyes as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics.

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Merrifield joined the Shaw Group in August 2007 as the Senior Vice President of the Power Group.

As a member of the Power Group’s executive team, Mr. Merrifield is focused on enhancing the group’s external relationships including government affairs, marketing and communications, customer relations and strategic planning.  Mr. Merrifield has been particularly involved in supporting the group’s nuclear related efforts.

Mr. Merrifield served two terms (1998 to 2007) as a U.S. Senate-confirmed Commissioner of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Appointed by President Clinton and reappointed by President Bush, Mr. Merrifield served as one of five individuals overseeing this independent Commission that regulates the safety and security of the 104 operating nuclear power plants in the United States.

During his tenure, Mr. Merrifield led a number of high-level U.S. government delegations that included visits to 30 of the 31 countries that operate nuclear power plants, touring more than half of the world’s 440 operating nuclear units.

Before he was appointed to the NRC, Mr. Merrifield served as the Staff Director for the United States Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Control and Risk Assessment (January 1995 to October 1998).

From September 1992 to January 1995, Mr. Merrifield served as an associate of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of McKenna and Cuneo.

From January 1987 to July of 1992, Mr. Merrifield served as a legislative assistant for two New Hampshire Senators.

Mr. Dann specializes in corporate strategic planning and decision-making. He has over 14 years experience in strategic decision-making in power and other infrastructure and network industries.

His work has been focused in three main areas:

• Corporate strategic decision-making and planning in power generation, gas and electric distribution, and other network infrastructure companies, including new asset acquisition and development, portfolio strategy, and major capital investment decisions
• Enterprise risk management and risk analysis of large capital investments in energy and infrastructure including cost and schedule risk analysis of nuclear power plant construction
• Restructuring-, commercialization-, and privatization-related consulting engagements for government organizations and private companies in South America, Asia, and the Middle East.

Mr. Dann has extensive experience in strategic planning and decision-making in nuclear power in the US and globally. He is currently leading several engagements analyzing the value and risk of some of the largest new nuclear developments in the US. Internationally, he recently led an engagement on behalf of a leading Indian infrastructure developer in evaluating opportunities for developing nuclear power plants. He has also been active in evaluating refurbishment investments. For example, on behalf of a partnership of investors, he recently analyzed the decision to refurbish nuclear units at one of the largest nuclear facilities in North America, an investment of over US$5.25B in capital expenditures.

Before joining SDG, Mr. Dann was a principal with Charles River Associates after that firm’s acquisition of the North American Chemicals & Petroleum management consulting division of Arthur D. Little. He was an associate director at Arthur D. Little prior to the sale of the business. Before joining Arthur D. Little, Mr. Dann was an economic analyst at National Economic Research Associates (NERA), an economics and management consulting firm, where he was responsible for economic and technical analyses on management consulting and litigation cases in a variety of industries, predominantly electric utilities and telecommunications. His electric utility consulting experience includes the preparation of testimony before regulatory bodies, general industry economics and studies of industry restructuring.

Before attending graduate school, Mr. Dann was a registered representative in Strategic Business Development at Charles Schwab and Co. At Schwab, he was part of a small team developing the firm’s business in previously inaccessible parts of the country. He was also a stockbroker and trader responsible for building client relationships and executing transactions in equities, options, and government and corporate bonds.

Mr. Dann received an Msc. in economics from the London School of Economics and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Bruce Lacy, principal of Lacy Consulting Group, provides advisory services to project sponsors, government agencies and the financial community on the technical, regulatory and policy issues associated with nuclear power. He publishes the weekly Lacy Nuclear Index™ of merchant US nuclear power plant owners and co-sponsors with Chappaqua Capital Consultants the annual Survey on Attitudes in the Financial Community Toward New Nuclear Construction©.

Prior to founding Lacy Consulting Group in 2006, Mr. Lacy had extensive power plant and utility management experience with Alliant Energy and its predecessor companies involving virtually all aspects of commercial nuclear power. His management responsibilities included nuclear plant licensing, maintenance, refueling outages, engineering, strategic planning, business and asset management. Additional responsibilities included nuclear co-owner, media, government affairs and financial community relationships. He also led major projects with responsibility for development of a spent nuclear fuel storage facility, development of a first-of-a-kind nuclear operating company and for the sale of the company’s nuclear assets.

Mr. Lacy is a member of the American Nuclear Society and is active with the Nuclear Energy Institute. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Engineering Advisory Committee of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited. He is a recognized speaker and writer on nuclear business issues both in the US and internationally. Mr. Lacy served four years as an officer in the U.S. Army and holds a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Speaker overview coming soon...

For over 25 years, John Lamberski has advised electric utility companies in a wide variety of complex transactional matters. His expertise centers on the generation of electric energy from facilities of all fuel sources, including natural gas, coal and nuclear, and from renewable resource facilities. The breadth of John’s transactional expertise includes the engineering, procurement and construction of generating facilities, the purchase and sale of generating assets, the purchase and sale of capacity, energy and ancillary services, the development and implementation of requests for proposals for each of the foregoing, operation and maintenance agreements, co-ownership arrangements, long term service agreements and other transactions. In July of 2009, after 22 years of practice with the international law firm of Troutman Sanders, John joined several of his former project development and finance partners from Troutman Sanders in the formation of a new paradigm energy boutique law firm offering the highest quality legal services focused on electric power sector transactions, including complex financings, mergers and acquisitions, project development and other transactions.

Since 1978, John Mercer has concentrated his law practice in the areas of project and corporate finance and other complex transactions, with particular emphasis on the electric power industry. John has extensive experience and expertise in clean energy technology (including nuclear and renewable) projects, corporate finance and securities compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and independent power projects. For 31 years, John practiced law with Troutman Sanders LLP, a large international law firm known around the world for its expertise in the electric power sector. For the last 12 years of his tenure at Troutman, John was the firm-wide head of the Project Development and Finance Practice Group. In June 2009, John and Chip Thompson (who also specializes in project development and finance and was the firm-wide head of Troutman’s International Practice Group) left Troutman to found Mercer Thompson as an innovative, boutique law firm offering best-in-class legal services to top electric power companies and projects, including complex financings, mergers and acquisitions, project development and other transactions. According to Chambers USA’s America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, “[t]he ‘clearly outstanding’ John Mercer earned praise from interviewees for his extensive expertise in utility financing.”

Arun Mani is a Managing Director in Huron Consulting Group’s Utilities Consulting practice and specializes in assisting clients with large capital project and business operations decisions using state-of-the art Decision Analysis methodology.  Mr. Mani is an expert in risk assessments and financial modeling and has assisted clients analyze and evaluate major capital projects in the nuclear generation industry including new nuclear build, plant life extension, extended power up-rate, and major capital component replacements.  He has worked with utility executives, attorneys, public utility commission personnel, and investment bankers to provide independent assessments on various topical issues including useful life of generation assets, capital project risks and returns, power procurement, and fair market value issues.  Mr. Mani has successfully led and completed more than 50 consulting projects for over 20 clients over the last decade. 

Prior to joining Huron Consulting Group, Mr. Mani was a Partner with Barrington-Wellesley Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in the utilities industry, and before that held consulting positions with Navigant Consulting and Deloitte.  Mr. Mani has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Denison University.  He is also a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and an Accredited Valuation Analyst (AVA).  He is presently enrolled in a Certificate program in Strategic Decisions and Risk Management at Stanford University.

After completing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Honors Program, Mr. Fernández represented the agency on a variety of issues concerning nuclear power plants.  Some of Mr. Fernández’s major assignments were the representation of the NRC Staff in litigation concerning the security of a nuclear power plant against potential terrorist attacks and representation of the NRC as chief counsel in the pre-licensing phase for the first three Early Site Permits in the United States.  At PG&E, Mr. Fernández oversaw and coordinated all legal matters related to PG&E’s nuclear assets.  In 2007, Mr. Fernández joined FPL as Senior Attorney and is lead counsel for FPL’s new nuclear ventures. While advising FPL on new nuclear generation issues, he continues to provide counsel to FPL's current nuclear fleet on all matters, including licensing, security, enforcement, employment, environmental, complex commercial transactions, etc.  Additionally, Mr. Fernández is a member of FPL Group's Diversity Council. In that capacity, he provides strategic advice and oversight of FPL Group's diversity goals.