James Helbling was appointed Interim Senior Director of the Operations Portfolio Management Office in February 2025. In this role, he leads Yale’s process improvement, project and portfolio management, and change management functions.
James helps align leaders and teams around best practices in operational excellence, adapting them to Yale’s culture through collaboration and partnership. He focuses on building shared frameworks, solving problems, and ensuring projects deliver lasting results.
He joined Yale in 2022 as Director of Process Improvement, where he established the university’s process improvement framework and supported initiatives including Learning, OneFinance, Job Family Redesign, and Recruiting. Prior to Yale, he held senior leadership roles at Hartford HealthCare, where he created and scaled enterprise-level improvement and portfolio management offices, driving clinical redesign and large-scale transformation initiatives.
James holds a Master of Science in Technology Management and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology from Central Connecticut State University. He also completed the Digital Transformation Strategy program at the Yale School of Management. He is active in the project management and Six Sigma communities and is an ongoing learner, holding certifications including Project Management Office Certified Professional (PMO-CP), Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB), and Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM). Outside of work, he is an avid mountain biker and kayaker who enjoys exploring the outdoors with his family.