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Jerry Kekos, Senior Business Manager

I am responsible for the Business Management (BM) group at the ALS. Additionally I am responsible for resource and division workforce management, and I oversee human resource activities within the division. My biggest challenge is managing the ALS budget.

I have the daily pleasure of working with some uniquely talented individuals, each of whom is dedicated to the success of the ALS. The BM group consists of the Administration, Finance, and Logistics Groups.

Administration

Members of the Administration Group (in paratheses below) are responsible for providing specialized administrative support to the Director’s Office, various scientific and operational groups, visitors and guests. The staff members and their responsibilities are the following:

  • Division Office (Joy Kono, Mayra Rivas) – Division Director, Deputy Division Director of Science, Deputy Division Director of Operations, Advisor for Science, Advisor for Operations, Business Manager
  • Accelerator Physics Group (Grace Covarrubias) – Group Leader  – (7) scientific staff, (2) visitors and postdocs
  • Experimental Systems Group (Jason Templer) – Group Leader, (28) scientific staff, (23) visitors and postdocs
  • Scientific Support Group (Adriana Reza) – Group Leader, (27) scientific staff, (26) visitors and postdocs, (9) postdoctoral fellows, (8) doctoral fellows

Biggest challenge(s) – Coordinating the daily activities of the ALS Management and managing numerous internal reviews that include the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) biannual meetings, Crosscutting Reviews, and DOE Basic Energy Sciences Reviews (BES).

Finance

Linda Griffin (Lead) and Melanesia Lewis are members of the busy Finance Group. They are responsible for transactional, accounting, and budgeting activities; internal and external financial reporting; timekeeping; proposals; and user agreements. Some of the numbers they deal with:

  • FY10 ALS Overall Budget – 67.9M,63.1M DOE
  • Number of Accounts – Operations 640 effort, 330 non-effort , Equipment 160, AIP 60, LDRD 11, ARRA 60 (4 projects), WFO 15
  • Proprietary Accounts – 30+, 460+ shifts, Non-Proprietary Agreements – 200+

Biggest challenge(s) – Continuing Resolution. With the small size of the finance group it is hard to manage day-to-day financial activities of the ALS; bigger one-time events (e.g., calls for proposals) and long-term events (e.g., ARRA requirements) are extremely hard to manage. Aside from the ALS, three other divisions (Engineering, Facilities, and Accelerator Fusion Research) access ALS accounts, which also complicates financial management, coordination of projects, procurements, and the Lab’s timekeeping process, LETS.

Logistics

The Logistics Group comprises Gary Giangrasso (Lead), Todd Anderson, and Derrick Crofoot, and is responsible for warehousing activities (shipping, receiving, and storage), user support, procurements, stockroom, property management, inventories, and staging areas. They oversee the following, in support of ALS staff and users:

  • Property – Asset Value ~166M, Assets # ~2K</li> <li>Procurements - # of orders- 1,185 (FY10), avg. value 5K, range200 to 1.5M many orders in the125K range.
  • Storeroom – Inventory value – $185K, Item # –750 Items

Biggest challenge(s) – The Logistics Group operates like a work request center, handling various tasks and urgent requests for a substantial number of users, all with varied needs. Plus, the users ask a lot of questions! The ALS operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and since LBNL is not setup for 24-hour operations, the Logistics Group makes special arrangements to accommodate user and staff needs around the clock.