Russell H. Shearer is the Chief Operating Officer of ISL, Inc. He oversees ISL’s three business units that develop and manufacture products in advanced, high-fidelity digital engineering for RF and nuclear modelling, mission planning, and design and testing; AI and neuromorphic computing for airborne and other sensors; the world’s only state-of-the-art exportable passive sonar intercept; and real-world, efficient, and deployable solutions for nuclear energy production, carbon sequestration, and water desalinization, among other uses.  Shearer is also responsible for strategically positioning ISL to respond to growth, intellectual property development, and evolving business lines.

Shearer joined ISL in 2009, serving first as Vice President for Nuclear Reactor Services with P&L responsibility for nuclear licensing and construction-management, and then as Senior Vice President & General Counsel managing ISL’s global legal activities.

Shearer has held senior leadership positions in the U.S. government, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Assistant Secretary (acting) for Environment, Safety, Health & Quality (ESH&Q) at the U.S. Department of Energy—the chief ESH&Q officer in the Nation’s nuclear weapons and national laboratory complex—and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Chemical Demilitarization (acting) and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army—the senior-most line manager of the $1.3B (annual) program that destroyed the Nation’s stockpile of chemical weapons.  He practiced environmental law with Cadwalader and Squire Patton Boggs; was environmental counsel to the Savannah River Site, a nuclear-weapons-production facility; and served as a judicial law clerk to the Delaware Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.

Shearer earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University, a juris doctor degree from Widener University School of Law, and a legum magister (master of laws) from Tulane University School of Law.  He has a certificate in nuclear-weapons design from Sandia National Laboratory and was a National Security Decision-Making Fellow in asymmetrical warfare at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.  Shearer serves on the board of Grace at the Greenlight, which provides meals, water, and clothing to and reunites the homeless with their loved ones.