“Transforming the energy system represents the biggest opportunity of a generation.”

Thank you for your interest in the Great Plains Institute! 

Rolf Nordstrom is president and CEO of the Great Plains Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit working across the US to transform the energy system to benefit people, the economy, and the environment.  

A nationally recognized leader, Rolf has more than 30 years of experience in energy and sustainable development policy as well as practice in both governmental and nonprofit settings. He has unique strengths in brokering agreement among disparate interests on difficult public policy issues. Rolf has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Scientific American, Finance and Commerce, Utility Dive, RTO Insider, Minnesota Public Radio, and the Minneapolis StarTribune among other media outlets. 

In 2016, US Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz appointed Rolf to the department’s Electricity Advisory Committee. He has written or helped craft new laws on high-performance buildings, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, resource-efficient land use, and sustainable development. He was a contributing author to the third National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive report required by Congress on climate change impacts in the US.  

Prior to joining GPI, Rolf served for a decade with the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board and Office of Strategic and Long-Range Planning. For seven of those years he served as assistant director of then-Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson’s Sustainable Development Initiative, working to harmonize the state’s economic and environmental policies.  

Education 

Tufts University, Medford, MA
Master’s degree in international environmental policy 

Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Bachelor’s degree in English literature