Description

Join us at ETEC in-person or virtually on Friday, AUGUST 1, 2025, at 7:30am to hear from Mary Helen Hitson, Y-12 Field Office Manager, NNSA and Rich Tighe, President & CEO, Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). Please see below for more information about the program and the speaker's bios. 

No registration is necessary for in-person attendance.

Register in advance for the VIRTUAL #ETEConline meeting here: https://tennessee.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrd-CgrDMiHNTsDsHqH0FyubCh2ys57LzH#/registration 

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Visit the Find Us page for the meeting location, address, and map.

Mary Helen Hitson 
Y-12 Field Office Manager 
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Mary Helen Hitson serves as the Manager of NNSA’s Y-12 Field Office (YFO), a position she has held since August 2024. She is responsible for the direction of NNSA programs, projects, safety, security, quality, and administrative functions and activities at the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12).

Previously, Ms. Hitson served as Deputy Field Office Manager and Chief Operating Officer at YFO and its predecessor organization. She was responsible for overall management and the executive direction of administrative functions, technical programs, projects, and activities performed at Y-12 while working in partnership with Pantex Plant colleagues to provide management direction and oversight of both plants.

Ms. Hitson has more than two decades of federal service as a Management Analyst, Information Services Analyst, Information Security Specialist, Supervisory Security Specialist, Program Manager, and Physical Scientist. She has had a broad range of responsibilities, including supervisory and serving as the subject matter expert in a variety of disciplines across Pantex and Y-12. 

Ms. Hitson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Carson-Newman University.

Rich Tighe
President & CEO
Consolidated Nuclear Security

Richard (Rich) Tighe is president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel led management and operating contractor for the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with a workforce of approximately 9,500.

Tighe (pronounced “tie”) joined CNS in September 2022, and led the company through the separation of the Pantex Plant from CNS’s management and operating contract. Before the separation, Tighe led a combined 13,500 employees through significant growth and record performance. As the National Nuclear Security Administration mission and project scope grew at the sites, CNS met all deliverables to the military under Tighe’s leadership. Additionally, during his tenure, CNS added more than 1,500 team members, including engineers, scientists, professional staff, and craft workers, and both sites improved safety performance, achieving more than 12.6 million consecutive hours without a lost time injury. Under Tighe’s leadership, CNS has been awarded a 2‑year contract extension at Y‑12.

Before joining CNS, Tighe served for nearly 4 years as president and general manager of National Aerospace Solutions (NAS), the Bechtel‑led test operations and sustainment contractor for the Arnold Engineering Development Complex at Arnold Air Force Base near Tullahoma, Tennessee. He also was manager of strategy, marketing, and business development for Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security, and Environmental global business unit, an $8 billion business. He served as the NS&E representative to the Bechtel Group Marketing and Business Development Committee and represented Bechtel on the board of managers for NAS and Kwajalein Range Services.

Tighe joined Bechtel in 2006 as marketing and business development manager; he was elected principal vice president in 2016 and senior vice president in 2023.

Before his service with Bechtel, Tighe worked for Lockheed Martin at the Nevada Test Site for more than a decade, holding several scientific and management posts and ultimately advancing to assistant general manager for high‑hazard test and evaluation.

Tighe was a postdoctoral fellow in the Nuclear Science Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California. He earned a Ph.D. in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and a B.S. in physics from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa

This month's ETEC Friday Morning Meeting Series are sponsored by Navarro Research and Engineering.