Richard Tighe, Ph.D.
Richard Tighe, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard (Rich) Tighe is president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel‑led management and operating contractor for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Since joining CNS in September 2022, Tighe (pronounced “tie”) has led 13,000 employees through significant growth. As the National Nuclear Security Administration mission and project scope have grown at Pantex and Y‑12, CNS has met all deliverables to the military under Tighe’s leadership. Additionally, during his tenure, CNS has added more than 1,200 team members, including engineers, scientists, professional staff, and craft workers, and both sites have improved safety performance, achieving more than 12.6 million consecutive hours without a lost‑time injury. Tighe has also led Pantex and Y‑12 through an extension to the CNS contract and preparations to separate management of the sites.
Before joining CNS, Tighe served for nearly 4 years as president and general manager of National Aerospace Solutions, 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 3nvironmental 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 received 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.