Michael L Connor

Michael Connor is currently a partner in the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP. The majority of Mr. Connor’s career has been in the public sector, most recently serving in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior from 2014 until 2017. He was confirmed Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation by the United States Senate on May 21, 2009. During his tenure he has led Reclamation’s efforts to promote the sustainable use of water to effectively address current and future challenges associated with water supply and power generation in the American West. Connor has nearly two decades of experience in the public sector having served in the Department of the Interior from 1993-2001 in the Solicitor’s Office, and then as Director of the Secretary’s Indian Water Rights Office. From 2001 until his appointment as Commissioner, Connor served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee where he managed legislation for both the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey and handled Native American issues that were within the Energy Committee's jurisdiction. Connor received his J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School, and is admitted to the bars of Colorado and New Mexico. He previously received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from New Mexico State University and worked for General Electric. The Bureau of Reclamation is a contemporary water management agency and the largest wholesale provider of water in the country. It brings water to more than 31 million people, and provides one out of five Western farmers with irrigation water for farmland that produces much of the nation's produce. Reclamation is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States with 58 power plants.