Mr. Connaughton is CEO of JLC Strategies, a sustainable technology innovation and public policy advisory firm, and a globally prominent speaker on the intersection of technology, energy, and policy. From 2016-2024 he was Chairman and CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies, a high-performance, ultra-efficient, and sustainable data center infrastructure company that licenses, manufactures and operates integrated building system and cooling technologies to enable rapid global implementation of AI.
From 2013-2016, Mr. Connaughton was Executive Vice President of C3.ai, a leading enterprise AI software provider for accelerating sustainable digital transformation of energy, industrial, and military systems. From 2009-2013, he was Executive Vice President of Constellation Energy, which merged with Exelon, becoming one of the largest and cleanest US suppliers of electricity, natural gas, and energy services. In 2001, the US Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Connaughton to the position of Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In that role, he served as President George W. Bush’s senior advisor on energy, environment, and natural resources, and as Director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy. During his eight-year service, Mr. Connaughton worked closely with the President, his Cabinet, Congress, and state and global leaders to develop and implement energy, environment, natural resource, and climate change policies. An avid ocean conservationist, Mr. Connaughton chaired the Cabinet Committee on Ocean Policy and led the creation of four of the largest and most ecologically diverse marine resource conservation areas in the world, for which he received Oceana’s Ocean Champion Award.
Mr. Connaughton is a member of the Board of Directors of Synova, an Operating Partner of Commonweal Ventures, and Senior Advisor to Applied Materials, X (Google’s Moonshot Factory), Shine Fusion Technologies, and GSF Upcycling. He is also a Senior Advisor to the ClearPath Foundation; Senior Fellow of the Columbia Global Center on Environmental Policy; Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Energy Policy Forum; Co-Chair of the Climate Leadership Council’s Center on Climate and Trade; member of the Board of Directors at Resources for the Future and the American Conservation Coalition; and a member of the Advisory Board at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and at Yale’s Center on Environmental Law and Policy.
