Driving Change at Argonne National Lab

Kimberly Conroy Sawyer ‘89 has spent a career crisscrossing the private sector, government agencies and national laboratories. Trained in math, computer science and business, she’s also adept in the realm of interpersonal skills, curious about cultural differences and at ease leading others.

As deputy laboratory director for operations and chief operations officer at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Sawyer works to ensure a stable future for the organization, which tackles complex challenges in science and technology. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory, Argonne’s research portfolio includes quantum information science, artificial intelligence research, advanced transportation systems, energy storage research and grid security, among many others. Sawyer is responsible for ensuring that all operations enable the laboratory’s research to proceed. Her focus is to build teams that deliver efficient, safe and high-quality operations at the lab.

“It’s about getting the right people in positions. It’s about driving change,” Sawyer says. “I’m having a ball.”

Argonne, which traces its roots to the World War II-era Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, has an annual operating budget of $830 million and 3,163 full-time employees, including scientists, engineers and post-doctoral researchers. Sawyer works with personnel across all departments, including governance, strategy and performance management, facilities and infrastructure, information technology, human resources, cybersecurity, environmental safety and health and legal counsel. 

Combining Business and Technical Expertise

“When I came to Argonne, I replaced folks that had Ph.D.’s,” she recalls. “But because I have the business and technical expertise and I worked for a number of different industries, I can speak the language, recognize [when groups of people have] different cultures, and leverage the culture and honor it.” 

One such cultural difference is safety. While government lab personnel observe stringent safety practices, Sawyer says, scientists joining from the academic world may bring a more relaxed approach. Accustomed to playing multiple roles, these scientists sometimes take on risky tasks for which Argonne has trained specialists, such as replacing a capacitor in a piece of equipment. One of Sawyer’s challenges has been to shift their mindset in favor of calling a specialist on those occasions. Her efforts have paid off, she says: Lab leaders successfully engaged the scientists in discussions about safety issues, offered safety training and created expert teams who are highly responsive to the scientists’ needs.

A Pittsburgh-area native, Sawyer put herself through Robert Morris University, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration. As a student, she fell in love with coding. She also set her sights on a career of executive corporate leadership.

“From the very beginning, I decided my future was going to be in management,” Sawyer says. She began her career at DuPont in West Virginia as a systems analyst. Later, she and her husband, a chemical engineer, moved to the Boston area because of his job. While working in information technology there, Sawyer took mathematics classes at Northeastern University, then decided to pursue a master’s degree in math and computing at UMass Lowell.

In addition to strong professors, Sawyer says she learned much from her fellow students. Mingling with people who had worked outside academia exposed her to what other companies were doing. And being around so many international students broadened her perspective. “Even before diversity, equity, and inclusion were popular, I was living in that kind of environment” at UMass Lowell, she says. 

Not The Retiring Type

In 2010, Sawyer stepped out of the corporate world to help lead Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. She then spent nearly a decade at Lockheed Martin, the contractor in charge of Sandia at the time, serving as chief operating officer.

When the federal government held its next round of competition to run the laboratory, it selected another company. Sawyer chose early retirement.

But, she recalls wryly, “that lasted not too long.”

Sawyer golfed, gardened and cooked gourmet meals, but she felt restless and took on some management consulting.

Then Argonne asked if she’d come to their Illinois headquarters for a few days. She paid a visit to the lab.

That was two years ago. Sawyer has thrived as an Argonne leader since then, dividing her time between the Chicago area, Scottsdale, Ariz. and Albuquerque. She’s even finding time to golf and to cook again (a recent success: beef Wellington).

At this point in her career, Sawyer says, she’s not looking to climb a ladder. That makes her work fun.

“As a leader, I can’t just say, ‘Here’s what you need to do.’ I want to plant the seeds so that people can carry on when I make room for the next person to come in and take over,” she says. “That’s the beauty of being at the point that I’m at. I’m really helping people to grow and giving back.”