Chief Program Officer of RMI
Jon Creyts is the Chief Program Officer of RMI, where he manages the strategy and execution of RMI’s global research and collaboration activities. He is an internationally recognized leader on global energy issues and climate change.
Since 1982, RMI has advanced market-based solutions that transform global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure future. An independent, nonprofit think-and-do tank, RMI engages with businesses, communities, and institutions to accelerate and scale replicable solutions that drive the cost-effective shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables.
Background
Jon has been a senior leader at RMI for nearly a decade, where he has helped grow the institution more than tenfold in size, and multiples larger in impact. He has extensive knowledge and practical experience using market catalysts like finance, digitalization, and technology to support the rapid decarbonization of infrastructure and industries globally. Among his many roles at RMI, Jon helped build RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity Program, playing a leadership role in the formation of entities like the Electricity Innovation Lab and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. He founded RMI’s China Program and worked extensively with senior Chinese leadership on the energy transition components of the 13th Five Year Plan. He is a digital innovator who helped build and grow the Energy Web Foundation, the world’s largest energy-focused blockchain consortium. And he created RMI’s Breakthrough Technology Program, cofounding its Third Derivative global climate technology venture platform. He now works alongside fellow managing directors to steward all 14 major RMI programs and support RMI’s market affiliates.
Prior to joining RMI, Jon was a partner with McKinsey & Company for 11 years in the global energy practice. He cofounded the sustainability practice at McKinsey and was one of the principal authors of the “McKinsey cost curve” for greenhouse gas abatement. Before that, he was a designer in the energy and aviation industries, and is an alumnus of Lockheed Martin’s renowned Skunk Works prototyping facility.
Jon currently serves as the chair of both the Energy Web Foundation and WattTime boards, two digital innovators whose tools support a decentralized and decarbonized grid.
Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
Location
Basalt, CO