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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2014
Committed
to Nuclear
Energy’s
Future
By Kimberly Clark, AREVA Inc.
Kimberly Clark
Kimberly Clark serves as Chief
Commercial Officer of AREVA Inc.
Appointed to this position in June 2014,
Clark is responsible
for all customer-
facing activities for
AREVA in North
America and reports
to Gary Mignogna,
Chief Executive
Officer of AREVA
Inc.
Prior to this
appointment,
Clark served as VP
Customer Relations
& Chief Marketing
Officer of AREVA
Inc., where she
was responsible for
customer relations and the integrated
commercial activities for the entire
AREVA product and services line. She
ensured that customer relationship
management, commercial strategy, order
development, and customer satisfaction
were aligned to meet corporate goals.
Clark holds a bachelor’s degree in
Chemical Engineering from North
Carolina State University and is
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified.
An interview by Newal Agnihotri, Editor
of Nuclear Plant Journal, at Nuclear
Energy Institute’s Nuclear Energy
Assembly in Scottsdale, Arizona on May
21, 2014.
1.
How is AREVA preparing itself for
new younger generation trade workers
and engineers?
We focus heavily on outreach related
to science, technology, engineering and
math (STEM) by partnering with uni-
versities, high schools and elementary
schools to pique students’ interest early
about electricity, clean energy and nucle-
ar power. We also attract emerging tal-
ent to the industry by offering dynamic,
hands-on internships as a way to expose
students to the industry and to cultivate
them as future hires. We have a three-
year rotational program called the Voy-
ager Program, which is geared primarily
toward attracting and retaining engineer-
ing talent. A Voyager participant gains
in-depth
technical
knowledge by explor-
ing different business
groups,
processes,
products and cultures
at AREVA.
We spend a lot of
time recruiting mili-
tary veterans because
military training and
experience transfers
well to the nuclear
energy industry. In
fact, over 10 percent
of our employees are
military veterans. We
also sponsor technical
training and trades-
person programs at the Central Virginia
Community College in Lynchburg, Va.
For example, if a high school graduate,
college student or employee wants to
learn how to weld, work on pumps and
motors or perform refueling services,
AREVA will sponsor that person so they
can complete the three-year program
needed to obtain certification in Nuclear
Support Technologies.
We also offer a “high-stakes field
leadership” training program designed
to cultivate strong field leaders, qualified
to deploy to customer sites, ready to lead
based on our four pillars of operational
excellence – safety, quality, delivery,
and performance. This training has
been tailored after some of our utility
customers’ programs to ensure alignment
with our customers’ expectations.
Through our Resident Engineer
Program,
we’ve
identified
new
opportunities to help our customers keep
up with changes that are affecting their
plants, particularly with the changing
regulatory environment. By deploying
engineers to customer sites for sixmonths,
a year or however long is necessary, they
become a key resource in the customer’s
organization. These engineers are well
versed in AREVA’s capabilities and can
identify valuable products and services as
they learn about the customer’s emerging
needs and challenges. The engineer is an
extension of AREVA—right there in the
thick of it, a few steps down the hall or in
meetings, helping the customer address
both short-term and long-term issues
and challenges. It’s beneficial to have a
resident engineer on site who understands
all of our capabilities, so that when they
hear of the issue, they can say: “We have
experience in Germany, France and Asia,
and have addressed this issue at another
customer’s plant in the United States.
Would you like us to take a closer look
into that for you?” Usually the utility’s
response is yes because it expands their
network beyond their site or fleet or
even the U.S. industry. It brings global
experience and that’s the advantage
that the resident engineer brings to the
customer—relative operating experiences
and lessons learned, innovative solutions
and expertise, and the ability to tap into
vast networks.
2.
Has the regulatory oversight
increased due to post Fukushima
requirements?
There are a number of new
requirements and striking the right
balance between addressing these new
regulations and maintaining current
safe plant operations is a major task
for utilities. Our goal is to help them
accomplish this with a cost-effective,
efficient, coordinated and planned
approach. We plan it, stage it and help
the utility implement the requirements
on a schedule that makes sense for each
individual plant. That way, they are
complying with regulations, continuing
safe operations and managing the plant
fiscally.
