BAR HARBOR – Charles E. Hewett, a Lewiston area native, was named chief operating officer and vice president of Jackson Laboratory.

Hewett, a 1968 graduate of Winthrop High School, has a background in government, energy systems management and international pharmaceutical development. His appointment was announced Thursday.

Hewett will oversee operations for JAX Research Systems, the lab’s not-for-profit business, which breeds genetically defined JAX mice that are then distributed to biomedical research laboratories all over the world. He will also provide managerial oversight for scientific support services and laboratory-wide operations such as human resources, finance, information and purchasing.

He comes to the position after more than five years with Cianbro Corp. where he had been vice president, secretary and clerk.

From 1995 to 1998, he was the chief operating officer for the state of Maine executive branch during Gov. Angus King’s administration. Prior to that, Hewett worked for a Norwegian energy and pharmaceutical firm. He served as the founding CEO of Hafslund Nycomed’s Irish subsidiary, a manufacturer of specialized equipment for soft-tissue imaging.

“I loved being in the health care industry in Ireland,” he said in a statement. “For me to be part of an organization that is shaping the future of health care research right here in my home state of Maine is really a dream come true.”

Hewett, who has a Ph.D. from Yale, joins two other executives in the senior management team at Jackson Laboratory who are under the direction of Rick Woychik, laboratory director. According to Joyce Peterson, spokeswoman for the company, Jackson Lab reorganized its senior management team over the last several months to better integrate its not-for-profit and profit ventures.

In the last 10 years, the laboratory’s staff has more than doubled to 1,300 and its budget has grown from $37 million to $127 million.

The lab studies every major human disease and works on developing new biomedical technologies and information systems.