Jim Krupnick Named Chief Operating Officer

Jim Krupnick, director of Berkeley Lab’s Office of Institutional Assurance and the Project Management Officer for the Lab since 2005, has been named as the Chief Operating Officer and Associate Laboratory Director for Operations, effective July 1. He will replace outgoing COO David McGraw, who is retiring at the end of June.

"Jim Krupnick has demonstrated time and again his excellent management and organizational skills," said Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu. "From his award-winning project management of the Molecular Foundry construction to establishing the Lab's Office of Institutional Assurance, Jim is a person who leads by example and builds successful teams that work together toward a common goal.  The Lab is fortunate that Jim has agreed to accept this new challenge."

Added COO McGraw, "I can think of no better person to lead the operations of the Lab than Jim Krupnick. I've worked with Jim for many years and have always found him a person of the highest integrity, thoughtfulness and sound judgment.  Time and again Jim took leadership of difficult projects and made them great successes - I'm confident that he will bring the same record of accomplishment to the COO position."

Krupnick, who earned his B.S degree in social science and an MBA from UC Berkeley, has been with Berkeley Lab since 1976. His first job was as an electronics maintenance technician for the now decommissioned Bevatron accelerator facility, from which he quickly advanced to the position of coordinator for technical and scientific systems. In 1987, he was named the assistant project manager for construction of the Advanced Light Source, the synchrotron radiation facility that was commissioned in 1993, a week ahead of schedule and within the project's $100 million budget. The ALS construction project received a rating of “excellent” in its final review.

Krupnick would remain affiliated with the ALS until 2005, eventually becoming the ALS Division Deputy Director. In 2001, he also took on the duties of project director for the construction of the Lab’s $85 million nanotechnology facility, the Molecular Foundry. Under his leadership, construction of the Molecular Foundry would also be completed on time and within budget. Krupnick and his project management team won the prestigious “Secretary of Energy's Excellence in Acquisition Award" for their work on the Foundry, and also a U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, the first LEED gold certification ever awarded to a building in the City of Berkeley.

In 2005, Krupnick was named by Director Chu to become the Lab’s first director for Institutional Assurance, as well as the Lab’s Project Management Officer. At the time of this appointment, Chu said:

“This new position is extremely important in deciding strategic allocations of institutional capital resources and ensuring that new proposals and projects are properly vetted. Jim Krupnick brings us his valuable experience in areas of program development.”