Lynchburg-based BWXT elects new chair

Lynchburg-based nuclear components and fuel supplier BWX Technologies Inc. announced May 3 that Jan A. Bertsch assumed the role of chair of the board of directors.

Bertsch succeeded retiring chairman John A. Fees.

“We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Jan’s caliber assume this important leadership position for our company,” BWXT President and CEO Rex Geveden said in a statement. “Jan’s tenure on our board goes back to before the spinoff of our power generation business in 2015, and her deep engagement on our board makes her an ideal fit for this new role.”

She has served as an independent director of BWXT since 2013 and was most recently chair of its audit and finance committee and a member of the compensation committee.

In her career, Bertsch was the chief financial officer and senior vice president of Owens-Illinois Inc. Prior to that, she was the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sigma-Aldrich. Bertsch had previously been vice president, controller and principal accounting officer at BorgWarner Inc. She was senior vice president, chief information officer and treasurer at Chrysler LLC, and beforehand, held executive roles with Visteon Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

Bertsch serves on the board of Meritor Inc. and its audit and governance committees. She also serves on the board of Regal Rexnord Corp. and its audit and compensation committees.

BWXT has approximately 6,600 employees across the United States and Canada, as well as joint ventures at more than a dozen Energy Department and NASA facilities.