Our team

Dr. David Hill is a physicist and M.B.A. with 30 years of career experience in nuclear research and in managing large nuclear laboratories in the U.S. Dr. Hill has held senior executive management positions in the foremost national nuclear laboratories in the U.S. from 1984 to 2012, specifically Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL). From 2005 to 2012, Dr. Hill was Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at Idaho National Laboratory.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hill has gained experience in all aspects of nuclear energy, domestically and internationally. He has managed major projects, including at the experimental fast reactor at INL, and led the restructuring of INL. He has been responsible for hundreds of staff, and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual budgetary research and development expenditures.

Dr. Hill received his BSc (first class) and his PhD in mathematical physics from the Imperial College, London University. He further received his Honors Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and Member of the International Nuclear Academy.

Simon Irish is Chief Executive Officer of Terrestrial Energy Inc. He has 20 years of global investment banking and investment management experience in New York and London. He has a formal education in the quantitative sciences and quantitative finance and has established and managed multi-billion-dollar alternative investment businesses in North America. Mr. Irish is the former Head of Man Global Strategies (MGS) in North America, the strategic investment division of Man Group Plc, a leading global investment management business.

During his tenure at Man, Mr. Irish was responsible for building and managing the largest and most active strategic investment and managed account business in North America. Mr. Irish was a member of the Investment Committee and responsible for corporate acquisition opportunities in North America for Man Group Plc.

Mr. Irish began his banking career at CSFP in London and in 2001 moved to New York as Director of FRM, the London-based investment firm, to establish its U.S. business.

In 2010, he focused on opportunities in breakthrough energy technologies and in particular nuclear energy given its unparalleled energy density and the commercial potential of advanced reactor technologies.

Mr. Irish holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MSc in Finance from the London Business School.

Dr. Ray Johnson served for nine years as Senior Vice President of Corporate Engineering, Technology and Operations, and Chief Technology Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin is a Fortune 100 company with annual revenues exceeding US $45 billion and employing over 116,000 personnel worldwide. Dr. Johnson was responsible for over 72,000 personnel working on over 4,000 prorams that provide the nation’s most vital security systems. Prior to his role at Lockheed Martin, Dr. Johnson spent ten years in senior executive roles with Modern Technology Solutions Inc. and Science Applications International Corp. – both large defense contracting companies.

Dr. Johnson has been invited to speak at the World Economic Forum from 2009 to 2014, and he has provided expert testimony to the United States Congress. He is a much sought-after speaker on business, strategy and innovation.

Dr. Johnson served as an officer in United States Air Force for 12 years. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Chip Pardee has more than three decades of leadership experience in the electric utility industry, including past operational responsibilities at a dozen U.S. nuclear stations. From 2013 to 2017 he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public power provider in the United States and the sixth largest by generating capacity with approximately 35 gigawatts, of which nuclear generation is 40 percent.

At TVA, Mr. Pardee has led more than 8,000 Operations employees in five business units: Nuclear; Power Operations; Transmission & Power Supply; Generation Construction, Projects & Services; and Safety, River Management & Environment. Leadership responsibilities include oversight of 17,000 miles of transmission lines and 35,000 megawatts of nuclear, coal, hydroelectric, natural gas and renewable energy generation.

Prior to joining TVA, he was chief operating officer of Exelon Generation, where he led more than 10,000 employees and managed 30,000 megawatts of diverse generation, including the nation’s largest nuclear fleet. At the same time, he served as chairman of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, an Exelon subsidiary. He served as president and chief nuclear officer of Exelon Nuclear, and held other positions held within Exelon Nuclear.

Mr. Pardee is currently a member of the Nuclear Safety Advisory Board of Tokyo Electric Power Company, and a member of the Committee for Nuclear Power of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation. He has held leadership positions at General Electric, three electric utilities, and numerous nuclear industry organizations and led the nuclear industry’s Fukushima Response Steering Committee.

Robin Rickman provides executive leadership in the development, administration, and implementation of a wide array of corporate business operations and activities ensuring compliance with legal requirements, industry regulations, organizational policies and professional codes and standards. Mr. Rickman has 40-plus years of experience in the nuclear energy business, including working with the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and companies in the civil nuclear power industry.

Mr. Rickman is an engineering business management professional with broad experience as both a senior manager and a business development team leader in the energy and technology sectors. He has worked successfully in both federal and private energy sector enterprises, specializing in the intersection of private energy investments and public-sector policy at state, federal and international levels of governance and regulation.

Before joining Terrestrial Energy in 2015, Mr. Rickman was the Director of New Reactor Projects at Westinghouse, a role that also included management of the company’s small modular reactor program.

Mr. Rickman holds a bachelor of science degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Francis (Frank) Akstulewicz serves as the Licensing Manager and oversees the regulatory interactions with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Terrestrial Energy USA. Prior to joining Terrestrial Energy, he had an exemplary 42-year career with the NRC, serving in numerous executive leadership and staff positions within the agency.

Mr. Akstulewicz served in several progressively responsible staff technical positions, including Technical Assistant to the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), Section Chief for Projects in the License Renewal Branch in NRR, Branch Chief of the Nuclear Performance and Code Review Branch in NRR, and served as Technical Assistant for Reactors for Commissioner Jeffery Merrifield and Technical Assistant for Materials and Interim Chief of Staff for Commissioner Annie Caputo.

He supported the NRC’s mission to protect public health, safety, and the environment by managing licensing programs applicable to new nuclear reactors. In his position as the Deputy Director for Licensing Operations for NRO/DNRL, he provided executive leadership in completing application reviews pertaining to design certifications (DCs), early site permits (ESPs), and combined licenses (COLs) that led to the issuance of the first combined construction and operating licenses for Vogtle Units 3 & 4 commercial nuclear power plants.

Under Mr. Akstulewicz leadership, the NRC issued five DC or DC amendments, two ESPs, and 14 COLs. He also led the NRC’s efforts to develop a generic environmental impact statement for license renewal, served as the agency Chief Environmental Review and Permitting Officer, and revised the agency’s National Environmental Policy Act implementation related to its License Renewal Program.

Mr. Akstulewicz holds a bachelor of science degree with honors in Nuclear Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.