When Holtec International Inc. Chief Executive Krishna “Kris” Singh founded his company in 1986 to develop technology to increase the amount of spent fuel rods that can be stored in nuclear power plants, he figured customers would flock to him. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
“I am not a natural salesman,” Singh, 60, told PhillyInc. “In the early years of Holtec’s business, I struggled with it.”
Eventually, he overcame his weaknesses as a salesman and convinced the nation’s nuclear power industry that Holtec could help them address the problem of storing radioactive spent fuel rods. Sales at the closely held Marlton-based company then took off, as did the profits, which Singh declined to disclose.
The company, which Singh says has an order backlog of $3 billion, has about 300 employees. Holtec says its technology is used in reactors in the U.S., Canada, China, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Korea, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Taiwan.
Earlier this month, Holtec grabbed headlines when it won a 200 million euro ($269 million) contract to design, license, establish and commission a fuel storage facility at the Chernobyl facility in Ukraine, the 1986 site of the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. The company plans to employ 60 to 80 people in Ukraine and is looking to buy and office building in the country's capital of Kiev.
Notably, Singh said he takes $1 from his salary each year and has his company donate the rest to his charitable foundation. Singh’s foundation has donated $20 million to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, to create the Krishna P. Sing Center for Nanotechnology. It was the largest gift in the history of the engineering school, where he got has Phd.
PhillyInc: For people who haven’t heard of Holtec, can you briefly describe it?
Singh: Our company is essentially an energy technology company. … Our main focus is to develop equipment so power plants can operate more efficiently and more safely …. Most of our revenue comes from commercial nuclear power.
Q: You came to the U.S. from India in 1968. Were your plans originally to go back after completing your studies?
A: For quite some time … I was focused on going back and becoming an academic. I would have moved up the ranks pretty easily …. Eventually, I realized that I could never quite accomplish in any other country what I could here.
Q: How did Holtec get started?
A: I wanted to take the necessary risk and develop new things. Nuclear power plants were sitting on the cusp. They didn’t have enough storage to keep storing fuel inside the plant. There was no alternative technology to do deal with the fuel.
Q: Nuclear power is in vogue again. Have people on Wall Street asked you about going public?
A: We get approached more frequently than I can remember. … It’s a constant process. We have not seriously entertained going public. Wall Street is a short-term focused enterprise. The stockholders, they want their returns. They want their returns yesterday.
Q: Did you have any mentors who helped you along?
A: His name is Dr. Burton Paul. [He was Singh’s Phd adviser.] He gave me encouragement every step of the way …. I always went back to him. He’s always been a source of inspiration. He’s a first rate intellectual.
Q: When you first arrived in the U.S., there weren't nearly as many people from India here as there are today. What was it like for you?
A: I used to get a newspaper once a week from the Indian Embassy. It had a circulation of 10,000. That lasted for about two or three years. As the population grew, they got out of the business of keeping us informed …. If I wanted to have an Indian meal, I had to go to New York City.
Q: What prompted you to make the donation to Penn?
A: Today, it’s a new century and I firmly believe that America’s future lies in staying ahead in the technology race. The university will play a leading role in that.
Q: How big of a challenge is the Chernobyl contract?
A: It’s going to take us altogether five years to finish. … It’s a substantial undertaking for us. As one of my engineers described here, `it’s the mother of all projects.’ It’s going to consume an enormous amount of our resources. Our reputation rides on it.
