Operations & Business

Diandra Benjamin is O&B’s PAD office manager, unofficially “knower of all the things,” keeping the PAD office running smoothly at all times. She began her career at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2006 within O&B’s Business Directorate and has held operations and administrative positions in both O&B and Computing throughout her career. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University East Bay.

Diandra is an avid sports fan — she’s been to three Warriors NBA Finals games and a San Francisco Giants World Series game — but she’s the biggest fan of her children: her daughter is in competitive dance and her son plays baseball, basketball, volleyball and flag football. When she’s not attending sporting events, Diandra is probably traveling — she’s been to 20 states and 8 countries, but her favorite place is her family’s home island of Kauai.

Mark McCain comes from a construction background within the commercial flooring industry. He began his career in estimating, project management and sales, working closely with general contractors, end users and architects. With clients including PG&E, SoCal Edison, Health Net and Gensler, he eventually became the operations manager and safety officer for a workforce of over 60 installers.

McCain later switched to a career in Oil and Gas, working for Chevron Products Company in El Segundo, California. As an operator, he learned new skills in an environment that holds each employee personally accountable, and where safety is paramount. Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) is a safety process that is robustly applied every shift at the refinery and is embedded in employees starting with the first day of operator training.

McCain eventually became trainer for the Blending and Shipping division, where he was tasked with classroom and field training of operators, developing and managing division procedures and manuals. His last project before joining LLNL was operations lead for the soybean co-processing plant. He worked with the Chevron Projects Team throughout the construction, commissioning and startup phases of the new plant. In his role as operations lead, McCain created the plant manuals, led the training effort and provided schedule and milestone updates to refinery management. Chevron El Segundo was the first US refinery to co-process soybean oil and fossil fuels to make gasoline, diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.

Born and raised in Southern California, McCain moved up to Livermore in December of 2021 to accept the role of Hazardous Energy Control (LOTO) SME at LLNL. He leads the effort to ensure workers are properly performing the Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) process, which ensures that hazardous energy is turned off and secured before working on certain equipment.

He lives with his wife Jeannette and their two dogs, Pepita and Chevy.  

Tim Steele is an architect with 35 years of experience and is a member of the American Institute of Architects. Tim joined O&B’s Design and Engineering Division in 2019. He is the lead for the PMOnow program, responsible for guiding architects, engineers and cost estimators in preparing feasibility studies for a wide range of projects at Sites 200 and 300. Tim’s PMOnow studies provide conceptual solutions and cost estimates for a wide array of facilities, including upgrades and new facilities for laboratories, fabrication shops, offices, conference rooms, auditoriums, training centers, telecommunication towers and facilities, control rooms, outdoor shade structures and landscape designs.

Before coming to the Lab, Tim specialized in the design of educational, municipal and state facilities. His favorite projects include the award-winning St. Helena Performing Arts Center in the North Bay and the Oakland Museum’s Conservation Laboratory. Tim is a subject matter expert in accessible design and has served as a consulting access plans examiner for the California Division of the State Architect and has provided technical guidance to municipal agencies in litigation.

In addition to his design work, Tim is very proud to have been a tenured professor and director of the Architecture Program at Chabot College for 13 years.

Tim completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College and earned his Master of Architecture degree at Yale University.

Cindy McAneney oversees the Asset Management Department’s diverse operations. In her past 31 years at the Lab, Cindy has worked in business operations, security management and personnel management, including managing the LLNS corporate office for seven years before moving to the Business Directorate. She also spent 16 years in the Security Organization and three years in Laser Programs.

Born and raised in Tracy, California, Cindy grew up listening to the interesting sounds emanating from Site 300. She was drawn to the mission, people and opportunities within the Lab, and enjoys being involved in work that enhances the country’s security.

A burgeoning running enthusiast, Cindy has run several 3K/5K races and half marathons in recent years, including across the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge.

Officer Emil Pasion was born in Manila and came to the U.S. at six years old. He emerged from an upbringing on San Jose’s east side with pride in the adversity he faced growing up.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2009–2013, with one deployment in Sangin, Afghanistan, in 2011 and another on the U.S.S. Peleliu as part of the Battalion Landing Team for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Force–5th Fleet’s Crisis Response Force. The vessel went to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and East Africa, and Pasion worked on humanitarian issues and trained with local forces.

After serving in the Marines, Pasion went back to school to earn his B.A. in history and was planning to become a historian. Then, based on his previous role as an infantryman in the Marines, he was recruited by Sandia, where he worked from 2018–2019. He transferred to LLNL in 2019.

Phil Weiss joined LLNL and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer in August 2019. Before coming to LLNL he was the Talent and Workplace Services Manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2008.

He has over 35 years of training and development experience in government, high-tech and pharmaceutical industries. Phil holds a B.S. in Business Management from University of Phoenix, an M.A. in Business Administration from University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Walden University.

Phil has been a Livermore resident for over 20 years and has served in various community service roles in Livermore and the Bay Area including volunteering for the Boy Scouts of America and the Livermore School District. He is married, has two sons and a black labrador named Wiggles and he loves to travel.

Ashley Cube is a member of the Lab’s highly productive Talent Acquisition team, which searches for candidates for specialized technical positions. Cube was born in southern California and raised in the Bay Area. She earned a B.A. in business at San Jose State University in 2018 and worked in sales while she was in school, later joining the staffing agency Randstad, where she developed full cycle recruitment skills and learned to connect talented people with the right opportunities. During her three years at Randstad, she helped over 150 employees with the next step in their career.

Since joining the Lab in 2022, Cube feels that her sales and previous staffing experience has helped her with communication skills and building relationships, which are fundamental to talent acquisition. As a member of the talent sourcing team within HR, she supports Computing and some divisions within Operations and Business O&B including Human Resources and Environment, Safety & Health. She searches for passive candidates who may already be working and are not looking for jobs, but whose skills align with the Lab’s mission. She also reviews and screens applicants, moving them along the candidate funnel.

Outside of work, Cube loves to train in Muay Thai, watch comedy shows, and she can often be found reading or listening to audiobooks with a fantasy, adventure or science fiction theme.

Originally from southern California, Cason grew up in Ventura County and moved to the Tri-Valley area in high school. After high school, he worked as a mailroom supervisor before coming to the Lab 18 years ago as a material handler for plant engineering. He moved from a contractor role to an employee after three and a half years and has enjoyed a long and fruitful career at the Lab. Cason was amazed by the Lab as soon as he started working here, and he continues to enjoy it because he encounters a new challenge every day.

Part of the Infrastructure and Operations directorate, he is matrixed to the Global Security directorate, where he serves as the Lead Facility Coordinator. Cason is the point of contact for the Global Security directorate’s facilities, a job requiring daily hands-on involvement, extreme attention to detail and excellent leadership skills. In addition to Global Security’s daily needs, Cason’s team of 12 facility logistics coordinators works with all directorates including the Protocol office and Director’s office for large-scale events and meetings on a regular basis.

While many of his family members have returned to Ventura County, his sister, wife, brother-in-law and best friend all work at LLNL. A father of four, outside of work he coaches basketball, softball, soccer and football. He hopes to convince his kids to come work at the Lab.