RICHLAND, Wash.-Three senior leaders have been appointed to roles guiding analysis packages and operations on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
William A. “Bill” Pike will function deputy director for science and expertise, Angela Becker-Dippmann as affiliate laboratory director for the Energy and Environment Directorate and Amy Schmidt as govt director and chief human assets officer.
“These leaders were identified as succession candidates over the past three years, with investment from PNNL and Battelle in preparing them for leadership roles,” mentioned PNNL Laboratory Director Deb Gracio. “They have done an outstanding job guiding their organizations and advancing our mission over the last year in their interim positions.”
Bill Pike
With experience in computing, knowledge science and synthetic intelligence, Pike has served as interim DDST and beforehand held the positions of chief science and expertise officer and division director.
Gracio says Pike’s regular management and talent to construct cross-disciplinary partnerships will advance the lab’s scientific mission.
“Bill has demonstrated thoughtful, steady leadership and a keen ability to bring people and ideas together,” she mentioned. “He has helped shape institutional priorities and advance cross-disciplinary research.”
Pike emerged because the best choice in a nationwide seek for the DDST place. In this function, he’ll lead institutional science and expertise technique, characterize PNNL to the U.S. Department of Energy and its companions, and oversee planning, analysis integrity and expertise commercialization.
Angela Becker-Dippmann
Appointed after a nationwide search, Becker-Dippmann will lead a corporation of about 1,500 workers who tackle complicated vitality and environmental challenges. Her background consists of work with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and main PNNL’s Energy and Environment Program Development Office.
During the previous 12 months, Becker-Dippmann served as interim ALD, offering robust management and navigating a difficult transition interval for the lab’s vitality analysis portfolio.
Gracio highlighted Becker-Dippmann’s capacity to align analysis focus with sponsor priorities and advance packages in grid modernization, nuclear vitality innovation and environmental engineering. She succeeds Jud Virden, who now leads the National Laboratory of the Rockies in Colorado as laboratory director.
Amy Schmidt
Schmidt, promoted after serving as interim chief human assets officer since 2025, brings greater than 25 years of management expertise spanning HR and the general public sector. She oversees a group of extremely expert HR leaders and guides the event and execution of a people-centered, future-ready HR technique that builds tradition, attracts and upskills expertise, and positions the group to anticipate evolving workforce wants.
Throughout Schmidt’s tenure at PNNL-including main the Talent Management organization-she has superior enterprise packages that domesticate management, speed up development and elevate the worker expertise.
Gracio mentioned Schmidt demonstrated strategic foresight whereas serving within the interim function and is well-positioned to proceed strengthening the group’s workforce methods.