The Utilities Service Alliance (USA) Board of Directors announced the election today of PPL Susquehanna’s Tim Rausch as board chairman and Energy Northwest’s Brad Sawatzke as board vice chairman.

Rausch had previously served as vice chairman and succeeds PSEG Nuclear’s Tom Joyce who completed two terms as board chairman. Rausch will serve a two-year term beginning July 1. Sawatzke will complete the remaining year of Rausch’s term as vice chairman through June 2015.

Rausch serves as PPL Generation’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer with responsibility for the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. He joined PPL in July 2009 with 25 years of experience within the commercial nuclear power industry.

He began his nuclear career with GPU Nuclear Corp. as an operator training instructor at the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey. After moving to the Perry nuclear plant in northeastern Ohio, Rausch served as emergency operations procedures coordinator, supervisor of operations, training manager, quality director, director of engineering and director of maintenance before being named the Perry plant’s general manager in 2002.

In 2004, he accepted a position with Exelon Nuclear Corp. as engineering director for the company’s fleet of 17 nuclear units. In 2006, he was named site vice president of Exelon’s Oyster Creek plant.

Rausch is a native of Ohio and earned his bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He received his master’s degree in business administration from Cleveland State University. He currently serves as an advisory board member of Pennsylvania State University’s Nuclear Engineering program.

Sawatzke joined Energy Northwest as vice president of nuclear generation/chief nuclear officer in December 2010. Prior to joining Energy Northwest, he served as director of site operations at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant with Xcel Energy.

Sawatzke worked for NSP/NMC/Xcel Energy for nearly 29 years. The majority of that time was spent at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant where he held positions in operations and training prior to holding the performance assessment manager, maintenance manager and plant manager positions.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in applied physics from Winona State University and is a graduate of the Minnesota Management Academy at the University of Minnesota. He has also held a reactor operator and senior reactor operator license at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.

New USA Board Chairman Tim Rausch, left, with new Vice-Chair Brad Sawatzke.