Mike Headley named executive director of SDSTA, Sanford Lab

The Board of Directors of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority on June 25 announced the appointment of Mike Headley as the new executive director of the SDSTA, which operates the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Sanford Lab) in Lead, S.D.

The appointment, effective July 1, 2013, was made on the strong recommendation of Ron Wheeler, who has held the position for the past five years. ?Mike Headley is extremely well qualified to lead our project ,? Wheeler said.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard agreed. "I congratulate Ron Wheeler as he steps away from his role as Executive Director," Daugaard said. "The Lab would not be where it is today without Ron's skill and vision. I'm pleased that Mike Headley and Ron Wheeler will continue to provide leadership to this important effort."

Headley joined the SDSTA in August 2008. He was named laboratory director of the Sanford Lab in October 2011, and he will continue in that capacity. ?I?m honored that Ron Wheeler and the board of directors have entrusted me with this responsibility,? Headley said. ?We have a great team at the Sanford Lab. Under Ron?s leadership, we have successfully transformed the Homestake gold mine into the deepest underground laboratory in the U.S.  And our future looks even more exciting.?

The board also announced that Wheeler will continue with the SDSTA as director of governmental and external affairs. ?I?ll help maintain our strong relationships with federal agencies, Congress, universities and the state of South Dakota,? Wheeler said.

SDSTA Board Chairman Casey Peterson said Headley was well prepared for his expanded responsibilities. ?We hired Mike at the same time we hired Ron Wheeler, knowing he had the ability to move into the executive director?s position,? Peterson said. ?In the past five years, he has not disappointed us. We have great confidence in his skills.?

Peterson said Wheeler had played a key role in the establishment of the Sanford Lab. ?Ron has taken us from the survival mode to the viability mode,? he said. ?His skills negotiating with various stakeholders will continue to serve us well.?

Headley grew up in Brookings, S.D. He earned a bachelor?s degree in computer science from South Dakota State University and a master?s of business administration from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He served in the United States Air Force for six years as a project management officer for satellite systems. Then he joined the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center) near Sioux Falls, S.D. At EROS Headley led development of ground systems for the Landsat 8 satellite system.

Headley lives Spearfish, S.D., with his wife Rachel, who is a USGS geographer, and their young daughter.

The Sanford Underground Research Facility, located at the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, S.D., is owned and operated by the South Dakota Science Technology Authority, with support from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Energy.

Deep underground labs protect sensitive experiments from the cosmic radiation that bombards the surface of the earth. Currently there are two experiments 4,850 feet underground at the Sanford Lab. The Large Underground Xenon experiment is looking for an elusive substance called dark matter. The Majorana Demonstrator experiment, currently under construction, will search for one of the rarest forms of radioactive decay.

Visit the Sanford Lab?s website at www.sanfordlab.org, follow the project on Twitter at @SanfordLab and visit the Sanford Underground Research Facility page on Facebook.