As deputy director for operations and chief operating officer, John Connolly is responsible for ensuring the effective integration and performance of operations functions that support the lab’s growing scientific mission. He collaborates closely with our science directorates and works to ensure operational excellence across the lab, with direct oversight of Business Services, Human Resources, Information Technology, Facilities and Operations, Strategic Communications and External Affairs, and Environment, Safety & Health...
As deputy director for operations and chief operating officer, John Connolly is responsible for ensuring the effective integration and performance of operations functions that support the lab’s growing scientific mission. He collaborates closely with our science directorates and works to ensure operational excellence across the lab, with direct oversight of Business Services, Human Resources, Information Technology, Facilities and Operations, Strategic Communications and External Affairs, and Environment, Safety & Health divisions.
Connolly comes to SLAC from Argonne National Laboratory, where he served as the deputy associate lab director for operations and chief operating officer in the Photon Sciences directorate, which included extensive oversight of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) operations. He had previously served as division director of the APS Engineering Support Division, a role that he held in parallel with the deputy associate lab director position for nearly three years.
Prior to Argonne, Connolly held positions of increasing responsibility and technical leadership at Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC over 16 years, exclusively in the commercial nuclear power domain. His performance at Westinghouse was recognized with two individual George Westinghouse Signature Awards of Excellence and a Nuclear Fuel Special Award.
Connolly received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's of business administration with a focus in finance from Duquesne University. He is also a graduate of executive education programs at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and an intensive course in innovation and R&D at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, the latter of which included a short term residence at Toshiba Corporation facilities in Japan.
