John Harrington (Red Sox CEO)

John L. Harrington (born c. late 1930s) is an American business manager. He was the CEO of the Boston Red Sox.

He graduated from Boston College in 1957, and received his MBA from Boston College in 1966. After college, he was an officer in the U.S. Navy, then worked for both the General Accounting Office and NASA. He eventually became an accounting professor at BC until 1970, where he was hired by Joe Cronin, president of the American League, to be the league's controller.

After Cronin retired, Harrington was hired by Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey as treasurer of the Red Sox. Yawkey died in 1976 and was eventually replaced by his wife Jean, who sold the team in 1977 to a syndicate headed by general partners Buddy LeRoux and Haywood Sullivan. To gain approval of the sale by the American League, Mrs. Yawkey joined the ownership group in 1978 as its third general partner and club president. Harrington left the team to work for Governor Edward King of Massachusetts and then for a Lloyd's of London Insurance affiliate. But he eventually returned to the Red Sox in the mid-1980s, during a period of strife between LeRoux and his partners, and became an important advisor to Mrs. Yawkey.

After Jean Yawkey's death in 1992, as trustee of the JRY Trust, Harrington arranged for the Trust to buy out the shares of Sullivan, the last remaining general partner. He completely overhauled the front office, bringing in general manager Dan Duquette from the Montreal Expos. Under Harrington's leadership the team compiled one of the best records in baseball; The team won the 1986 ALCS; won the AL East in 1988, 1990 and 1995; and won the Wild Card in 1998 and 1999.

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