Management Team
Elizabeth MullerChief Executive Officer
Richard MullerChief Science Officer
Rod BaltzerChief Operating Officer
Bill EdwardsChief Strategy Officer & Joint Managing Director, EMEA
Chris ParkerGlobal Head of Business Development; Managing Director, EMEA
Sophie McCallumChief of Staff
Elizabeth Muller
Chief Executive Officer
- MacArthur Genius Award
- Breakthrough Prize
Richard Muller
Chief Science Officer
Professor Emeritus of Physics at University of California, Berkeley. Founded two Nobel Prize-winning projects in experimental physics (the discovery of dark energy and the structure of the Big Bang). Inventor and first to demonstrate Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). Founded Berkeley Earth, which analyzes land temperature data. JASON advisor to the US government on national security for 34 years. Recipient of the MacArthur Prize (“the genius award”), Breakthrough Prize, Texas Instruments Prize, Waterman Award of US National Science Foundation, and many others. Author of over 15 Deep Isolation patent applications (three awarded so far), over 100 refereed journal articles, and 10 books including “Energy for Future Presidents.” Noted for his ability to combine disparate disciplines in a way that leads to innovative breakthroughs.
Rod Baltzer
Chief Operating Officer
Former President and CEO of Waste Control Specialists LLC, a leading provider of services for low-level radioactive waste, mixed low-level radioactive waste, and hazardous waste. At WCS he was responsible for all aspects of the business including the NRC license application for the consolidated interim storage of used nuclear fuel. Baltzer maintained relationships with local community leaders and managed local, state and federal engagement with stakeholders. Baltzer is an expert in the low-level radioactive waste industry, generators, and national storage and disposal capabilities. Baltzer successfully facilitated the 2018 sale of WCS to J.F. Lehman & Company.
Bill Edwards
Chief Strategy Officer & Joint Managing Director, EMEA
A high-level expert in international strategy development and delivery for governments and businesses. Edwards has a track record in over 40 countries and has worked for major corporations including Microsoft, Intel, Dell and HP, as well as with global organizations including the World Bank and UN. A former senior UK civil servant, he co-led digital transformation in the Blair government from 2000 to 2004.
Chris Parker
Global Head of Business Development; Managing Director, EMEA
Formerly a senior civil servant reporting directly to the British Prime Minister on the digital transformation of the UK’s economy and public services, Parker has sixteen years of experience delivering consultancy and change management at the board level. His experience working for government leaders and blue-chip companies across 40 countries is focused on the development of transformational services and on nurturing public-private partnerships to drive market innovation. Parker has more than 30 years of experience in stakeholder engagement, governance and partnership development for innovative solutions.
Sophie McCallum
Chief of Staff
Sustainability enthusiast experienced in launching companies from the ground up. An executive passionate about startups, McCallum’s expertise lies in growing and scaling companies, fostering collaboration, and implementing systems and work methods to increase company efficiencies. She has worked in the banking, healthcare and technology industries including BNP Paribas.
Core Team
Zann AeckVP of Marketing and Communications
Steve AirhartPresident of Freestone, Principal Scientist
Ethan BatesDirector of Systems Engineering
Marie BoormanExecutive Assistant & Business Operations
Filippa BrundishHead of Delivery
Charline DhalluinFinance
Dee EvansExecutive Assistant
Stefan FinsterleHydrogeologist
Mark FreiSenior Project Manager
Kari HulacSocial Media and Communications Manager
Betsy MadruVP of Global Affairs and Policy
John MathiesonInternational Relations Consultant
John MidgleyGeologist and Borehole Sciences
Tonja NashOffice Administrator
Steve NesbitUtilities Advisor
Brett RampalGovernment and Advanced Reactors Affairs Consultant
Jesse SloaneHead of Engineering
Mary Louise WagnerSenior Advisor for Nuclear Policy and Strategy
Matt WaplesSenior Engineer
Erica WestTechnical Analyst
Zann Aeck
VP of Marketing and Communications
Silicon Valley marketing professional who specializes in marketing strategy, brand development, and in creating digital experiences across multiple media channels. Aeck’s expertise centers on the data-driven analysis of online behavior to improve the performance of a company’s digital presence. She has led and successfully improved digital strategy and brand experiences for leading high-tech companies such as NetApp and Fujitsu. She also owns and runs a successful pet supply and grooming business near Santa Cruz, California.
Steve Airhart
President of Freestone, Principal Scientist
Steve Airhart has over 20 years of experience as a geologist specializing in environmental investigations, compliance, spill response, and cleanup actions.
He has been a consultant to government contractors and private industry throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and has served as project manager and key technical contributor to dozens of projects. Steve has performed site assessments for industrial and commercial sites, as well as complex investigations of hazardous and radioactive wastes for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site.
Ethan Bates
Director of Systems Engineering
A nuclear and systems engineer, Ethan uniquely dedicated his undergraduate and graduate years at MIT to advancing deep borehole disposal technology. His Ph.D. thesis was the first to integrate thermal, geologic, safety, and economic models to optimize deep borehole disposal and introduced improvements in plug design, canister materials, and emplacement methods. His contributions to the field earned him awards from the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011 and the American Nuclear Society (ANS) in 2013. After graduation, he spent 6 years as a reactor and systems engineer with successful startups (TerraPower and Oklo) licensing advanced nuclear reactors and establishing himself as an expert on sodium fast reactor design, safety, and product development.
Marie Boorman
Executive Assistant & Business Operations
With nearly 20 years of experience in business administration within the oil and gas and corporate sectors, Marie now supports our EMEA Directors as well as our Head of Delivery. Marie has previously worked as an Associate Supply Chain for a well-known energy company and more recently as a Personal Assistant in corporate travel.
Filippa Brundish
Head of Delivery
With more than 20 years of experience as a management consultant, Filippa has worked extensively with governments around the world on transformation projects, focusing on program management, business case development and benefits realization, with effective stakeholder engagement at the heart of her approach to program delivery. An experienced Prince2 accredited project manager, her track record includes working in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australia. Filippa has delivered a number of feasibility studies for Deep Isolation’s European government clients and is currently coordinating program plans for our multi-national demonstration facility.
Charline Dhalluin
Finance
With ten years of experience in the accounting, consolidation and audit fields, Dhalluin specializes in finance in both industrial enterprises and small business startups. She previously worked with a CPA firm in San Francisco specializing in accounting and tax returns for startups and small businesses. Before that, Dhalluin worked in finance for a major European-based trucking company and with a large audit firm specializing in small to mid-size industrial companies.
Dee Evans
Executive Assistant
With over 15 years of experience in professional office executive assistant positions and a track record of strong performance in high-volume, high-pressure environments, Dee skillfully manages administrative duties and client relations for the CEO and Business Services Department. Before joining Deep Isolation in 2019, Dee worked as an Executive Assistant in Finance and Banking, where she supported a team of research analysts as well as the Head of Investment Banking.
Stefan Finsterle
Hydrogeologist
Founder of Finsterle GeoConsulting, he is the main developer of the key iTOUGH2 simulation-optimization framework and is the co-developer of the TOUGH suite of nonisothermal multiphase flow and transport codes used by the U.S. government and others to analyze underground flow. Finsterle has worked with nuclear waste agencies and private industry in the United States, Europe (Nagra, Switzerland; SKB, Sweden; Posiva, Finland; RWM, UK), Asia (KORAD, Korea; CNNC, China), and the United Nations (IAEA).
Mark Frei
Senior Project Manager
Kari Hulac
Social Media and Communications Manager
After a 20-year career as a daily print and online news editor and reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area, she became a leader in digital marketing, specializing in social media, blogging and web content for the renewable energy industry, where she grew community engagement and managed the reputation of a global solar energy manufacturer.
Betsy Madru
VP of Global Affairs and Policy
An experienced leader on waste disposal issues, Madru was the VP of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Waste Control Specialists LLC, executing the company’s strategy in the regulatory and legislative environments of Texas and Washington, D.C. Betsy managed state and federal engagement with government, customer, competitor and NGO stakeholders. She previously served as Legislative Director for Texas State Senator Kel Seliger and in the office of Commissioner Larry Soward at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
John Mathieson
International Relations Consultant
After 44 years in the nuclear industry, John retired in 2020 as the Head of International Relations for the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Here he led the NDA’s collaborations with counterpart organizations in other countries, including the US and Canada. 17 years of his career was spent in geological disposal which included helping establish waste management organizations in several Central and Eastern European countries. John spent the first 14 years of his career as a Health Physicist. He now has his own consultancy and works extensively with the International Atomic Energy Agency on decommissioning, waste management, and infrastructure readiness.
John Midgley
Geologist and Borehole Sciences
John is a professional geoscientist, engineer and environmentalist, with more than 30 years experience of investigating the subsurface using remote sensing and boreholes. He has applied his skills primarily in field operations for oil and gas exploration with side projects in gas storage and borehole salt mining. He has over a decade of applied carbon storage research focused on on-site characterization, monitoring and verification, and the management of research projects. This led to several years as technical manager for the British Geological Survey as borehole sciences and engineering specialist before returning to consultancy and research on specialized drilling projects. His current research is focused on borehole sequestration of certain nuclear materials and Risk Management of borehole designs for carbon storage and drilling into volcanoes.
Tonja Nash
Office Administrator
Tonja has served as Freestone’s Office Administrator since 2006. Attuned to the changing needs of a growing company, Tonja manages day-to-day office communications and functions while also serving as the Human Resources Manager for more than fifty employees at multiple work locations. Tonja is responsible for administering Freestone’s timekeeping, payroll, benefits, retirement, and insurance programs. She also serves as the primary point of contact for client invoicing, billing, payments, and Freestone’s vehicle fleet.
Steve Nesbit
Utilities Advisor
Steve Nesbit founded LMNT Consulting in 2019 following a distinguished career with Duke Energy Corporation. LMNT Consulting supports clients on matters related to the nuclear fuel cycle, advanced nuclear energy systems, and nuclear nonproliferation. For nine years prior to his retirement from Duke Energy, he was responsible for developing the company’s policy positions related to nuclear power and interacting with industry and government groups on used fuel management and related issues. In addition to nuclear utility activities, during his career, Steve worked on several DOE projects including the New Production Reactor Project, the Yucca Mountain Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Project, and the Centralized Interim Storage Facility Project. He supported the U.S. Department of State on outreach to countries with developing nuclear power programs. He testified on spent fuel policy issues to the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2017 and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2019. He became President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) in June 2021 and served in that role through June 2022.
Brett Rampal
Government and Advanced Reactors Affairs Consultant
Jesse Sloane
Head of Engineering
Jesse is a licensed Professional Engineer and former United States Naval Officer. His work with the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program included the management and oversight of shipment, packaging, and dry cask storage operations for the Navy’s spent nuclear fuel inventory. As a consultant, Jesse led risk assessments related to nuclear fuel fabrication facilities and transportation operations for large-scale nuclear companies operating both domestically and internationally.
Mary Louise Wagner
Senior Advisor for Nuclear Policy and Strategy
With over 30 years of experience working on public policy issues in Washington, DC, Wagner been at the forefront of legislative strategy and leadership in the nuclear waste arena in both Congress and the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Wagner has a solid track record in building bipartisan coalitions and bringing together diverse groups and interests to solve complex problems and reach common goals. She served as Democratic Staff Director for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources until her retirement from federal service in February 2019.
Matt Waples
Senior Engineer
Matt is eager to leverage his diverse academic and professional background toward enacting meaningful progress on Deep Isolation projects. Most recently a utility strategy consultant, Matt also has six years of experience managing expended reactor core R&D for the U.S. Navy. Matt studied Materials Science & Engineering at Georgia Tech and has since branched out into mechanical engineering (MS and PE) and project management (PMP). Outside of work, Matt can be found playing trivia, rock climbing, weight lifting, volunteering, playing board games, or exploring national parks.
Erica West
Technical Analyst
Erica West has over 10 years of experience as an engineering physicist. She has founded a start-up, ResQ Biometrics, which has revolutionized technology for cardiac biometric verification. Erica has extensive experience in computational physics and materials science in academia and the nuclear industry. Additionally, she has led complex engineering projects and has successfully developed innovative additive manufactured materials meant for use in space.
Other Experts and Consultants
Tom Isaacs, Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement Expert
Tom Isaacs is a well-recognized national and international leader in the fields of nuclear energy, nuclear waste management, nuclear security, controversial facility siting, stakeholder engagement, and earning public trust and confidence. Mr. Isaacs serves as the Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement Expert at Deep Isolation, a private company offering an innovative solution for the safe, permanent disposal of nuclear waste. Mr. Isaacs served as the lead advisor in the development of the Blue Ribbon Commission Report on America’s Nuclear Future, written under the direction of the President of the United States that recommended the path forward for the U.S. nuclear waste program. He also helped develop the strategic approach currently being implemented by the Canadian NWMO to manage and dispose of spent nuclear fuel.
John Matthews, General Counsel
John E. Matthews assists clients seeking regulatory approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for first-of-its-kind commercial transactions involving nuclear power plants and other nuclear assets. He also advises on commercial issues relating to nuclear power plants and other nuclear assets, nuclear export controls, NRC review of license transfers and certain government contract matters. Clients turn to John for guidance regarding decommissioning funding issues and foreign ownership, control or domination (FOCD) issues.
Rob Utter, Well Construction Advisor
CEO of New Ventures Energy Consulting. Retired after a 31-year career with Schlumberger focused on drilling and well construction globally. Specific focus on horizontal well drilling and new technology development and applications, business development, and strategic M&A activity for Schlumberger. International posting including Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Facilitated and led the acquisition and integration of several Schlumberger mergers. Post-retirement activities include three board of director positions, two technology and strategic business advisor positions, and ongoing engagements with several technology developers.
John Grimsich, Science & Technical Expert
A technical staff member at UC Berkeley’s Environmental Planetary Science Labs, Grimsich oversees and maintains EPS labs, specialized equipment, and machine shops. He has expertise in geology and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), with experience in isotopic systems relevant to deep geologic repositories.
John Apps, Geochemist
After eight years of research into copper recovery from mine waste, Apps joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he developed a geochemistry research program for the Basalt Waste Isolation Project at the Hanford Reservation. He was a Department Head and Staff Senior Scientist of LBL’s Earth Sciences Division and conducted research programs addressing environmental and mission-oriented issues relating to nuclear and hazardous waste disposal and containment, including the Yucca Mountain Project.
Jonathon Angell, Business Development
Silicon Valley business advisor with over 20 years’ experience, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He has executed company strategies leading to increased market share, brand dominance, return on investment, and high valuations for equity holders. Angell has worked with companies such as Hitachi, Toyota, General Motors, Phillips, Merrill Lynch, and Ubisoft.
Jamie Rector, Senior Geoengineer
Founded and successfully sold three borehole geophysics companies to NYSE-listed companies. Also founded Berkeley GeoImaging, which developed and currently manages oil and gas assets in the Midcontinent, Rockies, and Gulf of Mexico. Rector been a Senior Consultant to BP, Chevron, and Unocal on borehole seismic technology and is the founder of the oil and gas PE fund (Berkeley GeoImaging). He has raised over $80 million to drill boreholes for oil and gas throughout the United States.
I believe I can benefit the industry and the climate the most by designing, testing, and deploying a borehole repository. And Deep Isolation’s rewarding sense of empowerment, mutual respect, and mission can make that happen.
