ERNEST "ERNIE" PETRU

Ernie is currently supporting LATA as a Vice President, Corporate Support. In this position, he is responsible for Training, Environmental Safety and Health, Quality Assurance, Facilities, and Human Resources. He is a senior QA/QC professional whose 30 years of experience includes more than 20 years of QA/QC leadership—with 10 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where he directed more than 150 quality engineers and specialists working throughout the site and managed a $19M annual budget. While serving as LANL’s QA Manager, he led the development and implementation of the laboratory’s uniform Quality and Performance Assurance (QPA) Program across the complex. The sitewide program he established encompassed nuclear weapons design and production, scientific and applied research for government and corporate sponsors, and environmental remediation and compliance activities. Ernie is fully versed in DOE O 414.1D, ASME NQA-1, and NAP-24A, which he implemented at LANL, and ISO 9001. He also is a certified Lead Auditor with Six Sigma and Lean certifications.

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Prior to his current position, Ernie served as LATA’s ESH&Q Manager responsible for quality execution and oversight of ongoing LATA contracts at DOE sites. He developed the Quality Assurance Plan and performed the Management Self-Assessment for readiness for Newport News Nuclear BWXT–Los Alamos Legacy Clean-up at the TA-21 Delta Prime Site Aggregate Area Delayed Sites project. He also led multiple projects at Sandia National Laboratories including: 1) the energy savings performance contract; 2) weapons system product realization process; 3) quality facility assessments; 4) quality supplier evaluations assessments of SNL weapons suppliers; 5) an independent assessment of safety program best management practices and 6) managed the execution of multiple vendor audits on behalf of Sandia National Laboratory.

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Prior to joining LATA, Ernie served as LANL Division Leader/Deputy Division Leader, Quality and Performance Assurance Division, where he developed a uniform QPA program for LANL and led its sitewide implementation. He also led LANL’s S/CI identification and prevention program. He was awarded full stamping authority for X (cancellation) and EUO (evaluation use only) from NNSA—which was the first time LANL had received full stamping authority in 15 years.

 

Ernie has a BBA in Organization Business Management from the University of Houston and is a member of the American Society for Quality.