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On both sides of the Atlantic, ambitious government plans for a large and accelerated expansion of the operating nuclear power capacity reflect this renewed interest. But it’s not just favorable policy that’s driving the nuclear sector’s resurgence; private sector players in technology and finance are also playing a key role.
Hyperscalers are increasingly underpinning nuclear investment as long-term power customers, thus fundamentally reshaping the nuclear power sector’s commercial logic. Meanwhile, private capital investors are showing interest in investing in nuclear energy at scale, often in partnership with governments and under new risk-sharing mechanisms.
Amid these major industry transformations, having the right leadership team has never been more important for companies across the nuclear power ecosystem. Yet many of these companies – be they project developers, legacy nuclear reactor manufacturers using conventional technologies, or start-ups focused on developing small modular reactors (SMR) – feel that they don’t have the right leaders or are struggling to find the talent they need to seize this moment.
Pulling insights from a series of recent interviews with chairs, board directors and senior executives across the nuclear power sector, as well as on years of experience advising nuclear industry leaders and policymakers, we offer RRA’s expert perspective on how these companies should rethink their leadership teams in a changing industry, and how they can find the executives that will empower their success.
The nuclear power sector is transitioning from a steady-state industry – which saw limited developments over several decades – to one undergoing rapid transformation. Underpinning this change is the confluence of surging electricity demand (driven by data centers for AI, but also other industrial and consumer factors), rising energy security concerns, and continued decarbonization commitments.
Policymakers, technology companies, and investors are all betting on nuclear energy being able to deliver a significant share of the world’s electricity over the coming decades. In the United States, hyperscalers – who are driven by the need for reliable power supply 24/7 – are increasingly acting as anchor customers for nuclear energy, offering utilities and reactor manufacturers long-term offtake agreements, direct project partnerships, and support for advanced reactor development. In Europe, meanwhile, countries facing a rising share of intermittent renewables in their power mix regard nuclear as a way to increase their energy security.
These dynamics are placing project developers and nuclear reactor manufacturers at the center of a larger and more sophisticated web of relationships. Companies must not only engage with utilities, regulators and their supply chain, but also global technology firms, private-sector investors, and policymakers. This means new technologies, new customers, and heightened pressure to deliver on time and on budget.
Nuclear Power´s New Stakeholder Map
Source: RRA research and analysis
However, many companies in the nuclear power ecosystem remain led by teams shaped for a different time, which was defined by a culture of risk aversion and long decision cycles. These organizations need new talent and perspectives to be successful amid new opportunities and challenges.
While nuclear technical expertise, regulatory compliance, and operational safety remain paramount, our interviews and market knowledge suggest a growing recognition that the leadership teams of project developers and reactor manufacturers must include executives who bring greater emphasis on an additional range of skills. These include:
Winning in today’s context is not merely about building reactors. It’s about scaling organizations, supply chains, and stakeholder relationships, while taking teams into uncharted operational territories (such as the accelerated development of large-scale reactors, or the commercialization of first-of-a-kind SMR technologies). Today’s customers and stakeholders will need new solutions, increased pace, and more innovative thinking from nuclear executives.
Where can companies find this new type of leader? Below we provide our perspective, informed by our professional experience and conversations with industry insiders.
We believe that nuclear project developers and reactor manufacturers should expand their search for talent beyond their sector and into adjacent industries – which we list in the table below.
The move to adjacent talent pools is particularly important for leaders in the operations and commercial functional areas:
Leaders with sophisticated project management and system thinking skills, not just technical competency and regulatory compliance. Compared to traditional nuclear power executives, they must balance safety and agility to deliver faster operations, greater scale, more complex supply chains, and sustained cost reductions. They should focus on highly regulated industries, and refuse to compromise on safety.
Leaders with understanding of the nuclear industry and keen selling skills, but also relationship management experience with the new actors now operating in the industry. They must be capable of simultaneously engaging and creating relationships with stakeholders across utilities and regulators (as nuclear companies are already used to), but also hyperscalers and other data centers businesses, large industrial off-takers and private capital investors.
Hiring talent from outside the nuclear industry can provide the new skills that companies in the nuclear power ecosystem need to accelerate their pace of growth and engage with more dynamic customers than they are used to. In this context, assessing an incoming executive for both their ability to meet immediate challenges and for their future potential to excel as a leader can be an invaluable tool at organizations’ disposal to dispel uncertainty and build confidence in a new hire.
But a shift in attitude towards external hires is not the only change that nuclear power organizations will need to make to bring fresh thinking and different capabilities to their leadership teams.
We have already started to see top executives from adjacent industries express interest in moving to the nuclear power sector, which is beginning to be perceived as a new and exciting area of growth.
To seize this opportunity, C-suite and boards who want to secure the best talent from outside the nuclear industry will need to adopt compensation structures that may depart from historic sector norms. This is because the base compensation of nuclear project developers and legacy reactor manufacturers tends to lag behind the industries where top operations and commercial talent are typically found.
In addition, many of the adjacent industries mentioned above have higher equity and long-term incentives than what is offered in the nuclear power sector. As they increasingly compete for talent with SMR manufacturers, technology companies and private sector investors, nuclear power companies will need to improve their long-term incentives to attract, motivate, and retain top talent over the next 10 years.
Nuclear power remains uniquely intertwined with national policy, regulation, and public trust. As a result, established and emerging reactor manufacturers, and project developers, must be deliberate about in-country political and regulatory connectivity when appointing leaders to senior, externally facing roles, including public affairs, go-to-market, and operations.
This dynamic does not mean that companies should refrain from hiring internationally or from adjacent sectors. But it does require careful calibration to ensure that leadership teams collectively possess deep national insight, institutional relationships, and the ability to navigate shifting political dynamics.
The right passport and language skills are becoming increasingly important to negotiate long-term nuclear deals and successfully build new projects. This must be considered when hiring top talent.
As nuclear power companies navigate accelerated growth and heightened scrutiny, one insight from our interviews rings clearer than the rest: while technical excellence and regulatory discipline remain essential, they are no longer sufficient on their own. The leaders who will make the greatest difference in this new phase of the nuclear industry are those who can lead people with speed through complexity and change in an industry on the upswing.
Developing and scaling nuclear projects today requires integrating specialists from different sectors and professional backgrounds – from infrastructure to technology and finance. Bringing these capabilities together into a high-performing organization demands leaders who can inspire trust, create alignment across disparate stakeholders, and motivate teams under sustained pressure.
Safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness will remain non-negotiable elements of any nuclear project but, in this context, excellent people leadership skills become a strategic differentiator. For companies to thrive in the new nuclear power industry, their leaders will need to sharpen their emotional intelligence.
Whether this moment translates into a “nuclear renaissance” is, ultimately, a leadership test. RRA is here to support our partners in acing this test. We know that successful nuclear leaders will need to be faster than their predecessors, politically savvy, manage diverse stakeholders, and able to motivate teams through complex growth.
Abigail Skerrettco-leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Industrial Services & Infrastructure practice. She is based in London.
Stephen Schoenberger leads Russell Reynolds Associates’ Energy Transition practice. He is based in Boston.
Francesco Menonna is a member of the Russell Reynolds Associates’ Commercial Strategy & Insights team. He is based in New York.
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