Connaughton, James L.BIOGRAPHY James L. Connaughton James L. Connaughton was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on June 14, 2001 to serve as the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality ("CEQ"). In this capacity, he serves as the senior environmental advisor to the President as well as Director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy, which oversees the development of environmental policy, coordinates interagency implementation of environmental programs, and mediates key policy disagreements among Federal agencies, state, tribal and local governments and private citizens. Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Connaughton was a partner in the law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, in its Environmental Practice Group. His work covered a wide range of environmental policy issues, including environmental management and compliance assurance systems, legislation, regulation, international trade and standards, and ecological risk and natural resource damages assessment. From 1993 until 2001, Mr. Connaughton served as one of the lead U.S. negotiators of the ISO 14000 series of international environmental standards. These voluntary consensus standards govern environmental management, auditing, performance evaluation, environmental marketing claims, life cycle assessment, and product development. Mr. Connaughton also worked with officials from U.S. EPA, California EPA, and the Environmental Law Institute to help form the Multi-State Work Group on Environmental Management Systems ("MSWG"). MSWG now includes all 50 state environmental agencies as members, and convenes government, non-government, business and academic interests to conduct research, promote dialogue, and establish partnerships that improve the environment, economy and community through systems-based public and private policy innovation. Mr. Connaughton has extensive "hands on" experience helping organizations large (10,000+ employees) and small (<100) become responsible environmental stewards through effective environmental management and compliance assurance systems. This work has covered the electronics, transportation, consumer products, home improvement, energy management, and mining sectors, in North America, Mexico, Venezuela and Asia. Mr. Connaughton has lectured extensively in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, and Central Asia on international environmental standards, environment and trade, environmental management systems implementation, product regulation, and natural resource damages assessment. Mr. Connaughton is a graduate of Yale University and graduated second in his class, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the Northwestern University School of Law. At Northwestern, he was an Austin Scholar and served as Coordinating Articles Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review. Following Law School, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Marvin Aspen in the Northern District of Illinois. An avid vocal harmony singer, sailor, and beachcomber, Mr. Connaughton resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife Susanna and two young children, Spencer and Grace. |
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