President and Chief Executive Officer
Todd Ailes is president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the Bechtel‑led management and operating contractor for the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with a workforce of approximately 9,500.
Ailes took over as CNS’s chief operating officer in July of 2025, beginning his second stint with the company. From 2006 to 2021, Ailes was the vice president of plant operations and site manager for the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, which was under the CNS contract. He spent 15 years at Pantex overseeing daily aspects of the plant.
After leaving Pantex in 2021, Ailes was the manager for the Bechtel Pueblo Team, the systems contractor for the Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado, where he served as a project manager and provided leadership as the project completed destruction of 768,000 chemical weapons and transitioned to closure of the site.
Todd also spent 5 years at the Kansas City Plant before joining Pantex and was responsible for manufacturing operations and production scheduling of nuclear weapon components. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, he spent approximately 12 years with its Nuclear Propulsion Program and gained deep system knowledge of operating and maintaining nuclear reactors. He has extensive experience with high hazard operations and weapons systems, including product development and funding/scheduling analysis.
Ailes has an A.S. degree in nuclear technologies from Regents College, a B.S. in human resources management from New School University, and an M.S. in business administration from the University of Missouri. He was elected a Bechtel principal vice president in 2023.