Senior Advisors

Mr. Jon Johnson is the Senior Nuclear Regulatory Consultant to Lightbridge and is serving as the Acting Quality Assurance Manager. He served as Senior Vice President, Nuclear Regulatory Expert, at Lightbridge from 2008-2020. He is a former senior executive with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is one of the foremost authorities on the licensing, safety, and regulation of nuclear power plants; he has been with Lightbridge Corporation since 2008. Regulatory agencies around the world have looked to Mr. Johnson for advice on reactor safety design, operation, and oversight matters, including the United Arab Emirates’ Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and the Japanese Nuclear Safety Institute.

As deputy director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Mr. Johnson helped manage several departments, including inspection, licensing, assessment, new reactors, and event response at all 104 commercial and 26 research nuclear reactor facilities in the United States. Earlier in his career, Mr. Johnson was a deputy regional administrator, branch chief, and senior inspector for the NRC. He was the NRC’s principal liaison to other countries’ nuclear regulatory agencies and was past chair of the NRC’s License Renewal Steering Committee; he also has performed nuclear safety assessments at several Department of Energy facilities in the United States. Mr. Johnson has been a featured speaker at IAEA workshops in Europe on topics including regulatory strategy and technical support, to the OECD on regulatory practices, and he has provided consulting to senior U.S. utility executives regarding reactor safety and performance. Mr. Johnson joined the NRC after serving nearly ten years in the U.S. Navy, where he was a nuclear-trained officer who directed dual-reactor plant operations at sea.

Mr. Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree, with distinction, in physics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia.

Mr. Simon Murray is an entrepreneur and banker. He serves as director, chairman, and advisor of major multinational companies. He has longstanding business relationships throughout Asia and Europe, and has been a Senior Advisor to Lightbridge Corporation since 2006. Mr. Murray moved to Hong Kong in 1966 and began working for Jardine Matheson. He later set up his own company, Davenham Investments, which was involved in project advisory work, in which N.M. Rothschild took a 50% interest. In 1984, he sold Davenham to Li Ka-Shing and became the Group Managing Director of Hutchison Whampoa, where he stayed for the next 10 years. During this period, Hutchison acquired control of Hong Kong Electric (at the time the largest corporate acquisition ever made in Hong Kong). He negotiated Hutchison’s entry into the oil business through the acquisition of Husky Oil (the largest fully integrated independent oil company in Canada). Hutchison began the enormous expansion of its container terminal operations, Hong Kong International Terminals (H.I.T.), during this period, including the acquisition of the Shanghai Container Port in China and the port of Felixstowe, the largest container port in the UK. H.I.T. remains the largest container port operator in the world today, controlling over 25% of the world’s container ports. Under the Chairmanship of Mr. Li, Mr. Murray led Hutchison’s entry into the mobile telephone business – pioneering cellular phones in Hong Kong and developing the world’s first nationwide P.C.N. system in the UK. – known as “Orange”. He was instrumental in the launching of AsiaSat, China’s first international launching of a satellite, and served as Chairman of its Board in its early years.

After 10 years at Hutchison Mr. Murray became the Executive Chairman Asia/Pacific, of the Deutsche Bank Group. Deutsche Bank Group had a major presence in Asia/Pacific, operating more than 60 entities in 17 countries ranging from Pakistan to Japan and Australia. He left Deutsche Bank in 1998 and subsequently founded Simon Murray & Associates, with Deutsche Bank as a 40% partner at that time.

In 1998, Mr. Murray established GEMS, as the investment arm of SMA, a private equity group, to make investments in Asia. His investors and partners have included major corporations such as AIG, Hutchison Whampoa, GE Capital, Richemont, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Development Bank of Japan, and a number of privately-owned family companies. He was Chairman of Sheraton and Hilton Hotels, and served on the boards of a number of Hong Kong public companies from the South China Morning Post to the Cross Harbour Tunnel Company – from the Hong Kong Aircraft & Engineering Corporation, to Hong Kong Electric where he was Chairman for ten years.

Mr. Murray is also a director of a number of public companies, which include Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd., Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., Wing Tai Properties Ltd., Richemont SA, Greenheart Group Limited, IRC Limited, Spring Asset Management Limited, and the China LNG Group. He has in the past served on boards and held advisory positions with a number of companies such as Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, Vivendi Universal, Usinor SA, Hermes, General Electric (USA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Macquarie Bank, N.M. Rothschild, Bain, and was until March 2015 the Chairman of Gulf Keystone Petroleum; and until May 2013 the Chairman of Glencore International. He stepped down as Vice Chairman of Essar Energy plc in May 2014. In addition to Lightbridge Corporation, he is currently on the advisory board of SouthWest Energy (BVI) Ltd., and is a Senior Advisor on the International Advisory Board of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., PRC. Mr. Murray was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by H.M. The Queen, and the Order of Merit of the French Republic and is a “Chevalier de La Legion d’Honneur.” In 2005 Mr. Murray became the oldest person to trek to the South Pole unsupported.

Mr. Murray attended England’s Bedford School and joined the French Foreign Legion in 1960, serving for five years in the Foreign Parachute Regiment. He wrote about that experience in “Legionnaire,” a best-selling book. Mr. Murray also attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program.