BC NA December 2020

waste-water plants, roads and other
critical infrastructure that allows
society to function and create good
outcomes for people,” he explains.
“Access to the water molecule and
the electron has long been vitally
important. Worldwide access to the
photon for data delivery is the next
essential piece.” Over the past two
years, Connaughton has overseen
the development of the company’s
first full-scale commercial facility,
which provides six megawatts of
water-cooled data center capacity on
a barge. He strives for an innovative
approach across all his operations.
“We’ve been on the arc of creative
invention and cleverly practical engineering
to make that a reality,” says
Connaughton. “The first part of our
EXECUTIVE PROFILE:
James Connaughton
231
Title: CEO
Industry: Data Centre
Company: Nautilus
Location: San Francisco Bay
James Connaughton is the CEO at Nautilus. Having joined the
organisation in March 2016, he has overseen the implementation
of the world’s first water-cooled and water-borne data center
with Nautilus. He began his career as a Partner at Sidley Austin
focusing on energy, natural resources and environment,
energy and environmental management and compliance
assurance systems. He then moved on to serve as Chairman of
the White House Council on Environmental Quality as Senior
Advisor to President George W. Bush. Roles followed
at clean energy companies Constellation Energy and
Exelon, and big data analytics company C3.ai, before
moving into his current role at Nautilus.
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