About UChicago Argonne, LLC
Board of Governors
Joan MacNaughton
- Member, UChicago Argonne, LLC Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory
- Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute of Energy Studies
Joan MacNaughton joined the Home Office of the United Kingdom in 1972. The Home Office is the government department responsible for the police service and the justice system in England and Wales, national security and immigration. After serving in various policy roles, she served as Assistant Secretary to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure from 1976 to 1980. In 1981, MacNaughton returned to the Home Office to review the law on sexual offences, and on criminal evidence. From 1982 she led the preparations for setting up the Crown Prosecution Service and was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1985 to be Principal Private Secretary (Chief of Staff) to Mrs. Thatcher's Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Whitelaw.
In 1987, MacNaughton joined the Prison Service with responsibility for policy on young offenders and the female prison population. After being seconded to the private sector in 1989, she became Director, Prison Industries and Farms, running 100 farms and 100 different workshops providing employment for prisoners. In 1992, she became Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary. In 1996 she was appointed the first Chief Executive of the Police Information Technology Organisation, which she set up, with responsibility for procuring large scale Information and Communication Technologies systems for the police throughout the UK. She was invited by the police to be a member of the Chief Officers Council of the Association of Chief Police Officers.
In 1999, MacNaughton served as Director General, Policy for the Lord Chancellor's Department, and was given a modernising mandate. She was also responsible for policy on Family, Civil, and Constitutional Law and for several large agencies, and for regulation of the legal profession. In 2002, she joined the UK Department of Trade and Industry as Director General, Energy, to lead work on the ground breaking Energy White Paper, defining a long-term strategic vision for energy policy encompassing environmental, security of supply, competitiveness and social goals and sustainable energy supplies. MacNaughton led on the energy aspects of the Gleneagles G8 Programme of Action and the energy agenda during UK's Presidency of the European Union. She was elected Chair of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency for 2004 and 2005 and advised DTI on International Energy Security during 2006.
MacNaughton became Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2005, Honorary Fellow, Energy Institute in 2006, and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Institute of Energy Studies in 2006. She is also Non-Executive Director, Quintain Estates and Development plc.
Born in Liverpool, MacNaughton earned her Physics degree at Warwick University in 1972.
