About me
Richard N. Swanson is an independent consultant and founder of Performance Management Initiatives, Inc., a consulting practice that focuses on industrial investigations and performance improvement for high hazard industries since 1996. He has consulted to more than 75 organizations and facilities distributed among nuclear and fossil generating companies; uranium enrichment facilities; electric transmission and distribution companies; manufacturing organizations; DOE; NRC; state agencies; and legal firms.
He has 53 years of experience with organizations in high-hazard, capital-intensive technical industries. In the first half of his career, responsibilities as a senior manager included annual budgets (in 2022 dollars) of $570 million (capital) and $170 million (expense), with management responsibility for organizations of up to 550 employees. Line management responsibilities included Engineering General Manager, Quality Assurance Director, Nuclear Safety Assessment Manager, Regulatory Affairs Director, Director of Project Management, and Construction Manager.
He has been an independent consultant for three decades, with primary focus areas that include: formal causal analysis; investigations into allegations of intimidation, harassment, retaliation, discrimination, and management wrong-doing; readiness assessments; and Safety Culture evaluations.
He has developed and delivered training courses for Root Cause Assessment (RCA) and has trained US NRC inspectors how to evaluate Licensee RCA Reports since 2006. He has been a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency faculty for International courses on Reactor Safety and Management Systems from 1999 to 2019.
Mr. Swanson holds an MBA in finance from Babson College, an MS in engineering management from Northeastern University, and a BS in operations analysis and naval science from the US Naval Academy. He served eight years as a commissioned officer in nuclear submarines (both ballistic missile and fast attack), was certified as a “Naval Nuclear Engineer,” and held an active Professional Engineer between 1982 and 2024.
