Jon Creyts is a program director at RMI, where he helps lead industrial and electric power activities. He brings 20 years of strategy, operations and design experience to resource issues at the interface of markets and technology.
Background
Jon is a recognized thought-leader on the business implications of climate change. Over the past decade he has met with the leadership teams of over 100 leading global companies and institutions, briefed officials and committees at the highest levels of international, federal and state government on the topic, including the United Nations, the jurisdictional committees in the US Congress and members of the President’s cabinet. He has been a featured speaker at over 25 conferences.
Prior to joining RMI, Jon was a partner with McKinsey and Company for 11 years where he helped found McKinsey’s Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice. He served clients extensively on issues related to operations, capital productivity, environmental management, and growth, focusing primarily on the energy, industrial, and technology sectors. During his time at McKinsey, he also co-authored the groundbreaking survey Reducing US Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? which popularized the use of the cost curve as a means to visualize the economics of reducing carbon emissions. He was a principal author of that report’s sequel, Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Economy, which explored the barriers and solutions to unlocking energy efficiency’s potential at-scale.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Jon worked in both the power and aerospace industries. He is an alumnus of Lockheed Martin’s renowned Skunk Works design facility, where he worked as a design engineer in Low Observables (Stealth) technology integration. He spent shorter stints as a power plant design engineer at Gilbert Commonwealth (now Parsons) and Metropolitan Edison/GPU (now FirstEnergy). He received a Ph.D. in mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley where his research focused on the environmental optimization of industrial systems.
Education
- BS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1992)
- MS in Mechanical Engineering, University of California – Berkeley (1998)
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of California – Berkeley (2000)
Board Positions
- Trustee of the Chicago Zoological Society (Brookfield Zoo)
Selected Speeches and Presentations
- UNEP FI Global Roundtable, Investing in Green Employment: Strategy Behind Green Jobs Initiatives, Washington, DC, 2011.
- Chicago Ideas Week, Climate Action – An Economic Growth Opportunity, Chicago, 2011.
- International Energy Conference, Unlocking Global Energy Efficiency, New York, 2009.
- Global Business Forum, The Carbon Productivity Challenge, Banff, 2008.
- National Clean Energy Summit, Clean Energy and the Carbon Opportunity, Las Vegas, 2008.
- National Academies Summit on America’s Energy Future, Reducing US Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost?, Washington, DC, 2008.
Selected Publications