Man of thePeopleFor William Borchardt,trust—earned fromthe public and sharedamong his staff—is thecore of nuclear safety.By John PulleyPHOTOGRAPHY By JAMES KEGLEYAs point man in charge of day-to-day operations at the NuclearRegulatory Commission, William Borchardt isn’t afraid to buck tradition.With public safety on the line, he says, he will do whatever is necessary“to make sure that all the trains are running on schedule.”Three years ago, when Borchardt, 55, assumed his current positionas NRC’s executive director <strong>for</strong> operations—its chief operating officer—he challenged the agency’s hierarchy, introducing the principle of “situationalleadership,” that the most qualified available person should lead,regardless of title, rank or salary.“I don’t care where you’re at in the organization chart,” Borchardt says.“If a Grade 11 person is the best person to head up a project, it’s perfectlyacceptable. It’s a good thing if we have a senior executive report-30 Leadership | <strong>CGI</strong> INITIATIVE FOR COLLABORATIVE GOVERNMENT | S P R I N G 2 0 11
ing to that Grade 11. What’s wrongwith that?”He introduced the concept expectinga few noses to be bent outof joint, so he braced himself.“I was waiting <strong>for</strong> outrage fromthe [senior executives],” he recalls.It never materialized. “They said‘That’s absolutely right.’“You have to give yourself andthe organization permission to operatein the way that most of uswould like to operate. Some organizationsseem trapped in [themindset of] ‘You can’t do that.There’s some rule.’“My job is to say: ‘There’s norule. Do this.’”Serious About SafetyBorchardt graduated from theU.S. Naval Academy, in 1978, witha bachelor’s degree in chemistryand served five years in the Navy’snuclear submarine <strong>for</strong>ce. He marriedin 1982 and decided to pursuea civilian career, taking a positionat NRC in 1983 as a reactor inspectorat the Region I office, Kingof Prussia, Pa. He planned to stayjust long enough to get a feel <strong>for</strong>the civilian work world. His intentionwas to “jump off from thereand start my career.”He never left. Over his 28 yearsat the NRC, he has had “12 or 15different jobs.” He served as inspectorat the Hope Creek NuclearGenerating Station in New Jersey,in the late 1980s. One of the lastnuclear plants built in the country,Hope Creek began operatingin 1986. He also was an inspectorat two operating reactors in NewEngland, posts that provided “agreat foundation of what this industryis all about and how seriouslyeverybody involved with ittakes nuclear safety.”More recently, following enactmentof the 2005 Energy PolicyAct and the licensing activity itwas expected to spur, he createdthe NRC’s Office of New Reactors.“The NRC turned out to be sucha highly motivating place to work. . . I never seriously consideredleaving,” explains Borchardt.Mission TrumpsThe NRC’s culture, he says, offerschances <strong>for</strong> people like him,who know the agency inside out,to challenge conventional wisdom.But as much as he is com<strong>for</strong>tabledisrupting hierarchy, Borchardtenthusiastically upholds what herefers to as the agency’s “firstprinciples,” the guidelines andtouchstones that undergird organizationalcohesion and sharpenmission focus.Standing up the Office of NewReactors, <strong>for</strong> example, was donein accordance with the most inviolableof NRC’s institutional tenets:preserving the health and safety ofthe American people.“The fact that we created thatoffice is reflective of the way theNRC operates. We’re all aboutfirst principles,” Borchardt says.“Clearly, the most important thingwe do and what this agency is allabout is the safety of the operatingreactors. Rather than dilutethe attention of the people whohave responsibility <strong>for</strong> oversight ofoperating reactors, we created awhole new organization to do thenew reactor work.”The Office of New Reactors hasregulatory authority over siting,licensing and oversight <strong>for</strong> newcommercial power reactors. Thecreation of that office reflects theimportance of getting in front oftrends that can affect the agency’sability to fulfill its mission. TheNRC cannot af<strong>for</strong>d to be reactive,Borchardt says.“The Energy Policy Act of 2005really gave a shot of energy to theindustry to create new designs<strong>for</strong> the next generation of nuclearplants,” he says. “The NRC recognizedthat there would be a significantworkload [increase], and wemoved to create a new office todo those design reviews. . . . I wasable to <strong>for</strong>m this office be<strong>for</strong>e weeven got the first operating licenseapplication, so we didn’t start offbehind the eight ball.”The cooperative way the agencystood up the office illustrates howmission trumps the concerns ofcomponent organizations at theNRC, he says. “The staff that wasused to <strong>for</strong>m the nucleus of thisnew organization—no pun intended—hadto come from the existingNRC,” explains Borchardt. “Youwould think that managers of allthe other offices would have createdfences around their protectedstaff, but there was none of that.“We had this very open exchangeof what was best <strong>for</strong> theagency,” he says. “I was able toseed this new organization withpeople of the highest caliber.”S P R I N G 2 0 11 | COLL ABOR ATIVEGOV.ORG/LE AD | Leadership 31
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