US nuclear energy innovation business The Nuclear Company has hired Robert Harmon as its chief legal officer, a newly created role.
Harmon joins from construction tech business ICON, where he was general counsel. At The Nuclear Company, he will handle all legal matters, as well as serving as chief regulatory officer, chief administrative officer and corporate secretary.
The Nuclear Company is helping modernise the deployment of nuclear power plants in the US through the use of AI-driven technology.
Jonathan Webb, The Nuclear Company’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Robert’s well known for building trusted, high-performing teams and operating decisively in fast-paced, high-stakes environments. His rare interdisciplinary background in engineering, real estate development and law will be vital as we deploy nuclear across America.”
Harmon arrives after just over two years at ICON, having spent the previous six years at Amazon, three of them as associate GC and director for its worldwide grocery stores, alcohol and corporate procurement legal matters.
Prior to that he spent three and a half years at Tesla, including a year as deputy GC and director for real estate, where he helped oversee the opening of its global headquarters and first gigafactory. He also had an earlier spell at Amazon as corporate counsel for real estate, having started his career as a real estate associate at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
Harmon said: “I’ve seen firsthand from my work at two of the world’s largest companies just how vital energy is to economic growth. The Nuclear Company’s focus on generating abundant, clean energy is essential to ensuring America’s role as the global economic leader.”
Harmon joins amid a wave of nuclear innovation in the US and is the latest legal move in the sector in recent months. Back in July, NuScale Power appointed Shahram Ghasemian from Centrus Energy as CLO, also a newly created position at the firm. NuScale develops small modular reactor nuclear technology.
Meanwhile in May, Terrestrial Energy hired Brian Romanzo as GC ahead of its planned public listing from franchising consultancy REP’M Group. Terrestrial Energy also develops small modular nuclear power plants that are built with advanced molten salt reactor technology.
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