At LANL-sponsored Networking Forum, Businesses Make their Pitch for Recovery Act Work

Lab hosts “speed-dating” event

POJOAQUE, New Mexico, October 22, 2009— Los Alamos National Laboratory today hosted a business “speed-dating” event for Recovery Act subcontractors— a rapid-fire networking forum where each company in attendance got three minutes to make a pitch.

Sixty-five businesses and 120 people attended the event at the Cities of Gold Conference Center in Pojoaque, New Mexico. Most were from Northern New Mexico, but some came from as far as North Carolina.

The Lab is quickly accelerating Recovery Act environmental work after receiving $212 million from the Department of Energy in late July. One key goal of the Recovery Act at LANL is to provide jobs and opportunities for Northern New Mexicans, and four of the five prime subcontractors are from the region or have significant operations here. All are small businesses.

Presenters at the forum ranged from labor unions to analytical labs, construction companies to a graphic design firm.

Therese Trujillo was among them. Trujillo is a nuclear engineer and president of her one-person engineering services company, VIVA Solutions International of Truchas, New Mexico.

“Today my company is eight months old. This morning I see a sea of opportunity,” Trujillo said.

“Our contractors are going to need everything from office supplies to heavy equipment maintenance,” said Gordon Dover, deputy director of LANL’s Recovery Act environmental projects.  “Today’s event was about getting our contractors together with Northern New Mexico businesses who can provide those services.”

Using Recovery Act funds, the Laboratory will demolish 20 unused Cold War-era buildings and structures, excavate and clean up the Lab’s World War II-era landfill, and drill new groundwater monitoring wells—among other activities—creating or saving an estimated 300 jobs.

About Los Alamos National Laboratory (www.lanl.gov)
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and the Washington Division of URS for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.