DOE and contractor representatives recently came together to help small businesses build new skillsets.
Office of Environmental Management
August 27, 2019
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AIKEN, S.C. – DOE and contractor representatives recently came together to help small businesses build new skillsets and expand their capabilities at the annual Protégé Day hosted by Savannah River Site (SRS) management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).
SRNS Director of Business Planning and Integration Frederick Grimm opened the event and spoke of the vital role of small businesses at SRS.
“You are our partners in the mission success. You bring talent, strategies, innovations, and ideas to the table that we may not have previously considered,” Grimm said. “We are committed to the growth, development, and success of our protégés, which is why the Mentor-Protégé Center of Excellence is important to us.”
The SRNS Mentor-Protégé Program is a DOE initiative designed to help small businesses enhance their capabilities as subcontractors across the DOE complex. The program’s latest phase is the Center of Excellence, where protégé companies share best practices and lessons learned.
At Protégé Day, leaders from DOE, SRNS, and Savannah River Remediation, the site’s liquid waste contractor, joined with the five protégés SRNS contracts with under the mentor-protégé program. The protégés also hosted tradeshow booths, where they spoke with buyers and their SRS mentors about current work scope and future opportunities.
Among the representatives attending Protégé Day from SRS and DOE headquarters was Mark Lochbaum, mentor-protégé program manager for the DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, who discussed the program’s growth across the DOE complex.
“I am very excited about what’s happening here. With 31 protégés across the complex, five are here at SRS. As protégés, we would like you to learn, grow, and know that you are a key part of the DOE mission.”
SRNS protégé ML Builders General Manager Shawn McCullough said the Center of Excellence has benefited ML Builders.
“Through this structured program, we have expanded our government services from the Department of Defense space to the Department of Energy,” McCullough said. “We meet once a month with our mentors and quarterly with the other four protégés. Our quarterly meetings give us a great opportunity to share best practices and lessons learned. We are able to gain different perspectives on how to do business on the site and this is an extremely beneficial aspect of the Center of Excellence Program.”
Following are the five SRS protégés and the services they provide: UDR Consulting for staffing, ML Builders for construction, Strativia for information technology, US&S for facility management, and CTI & Associates for decommissioning and decontamination.