Lena Hansen is RMI’s chief program officer for Geographies and Strategy. A member of the senior leadership team, she leads RMI’s geographic portfolio of programs, strategic insights team, and overall organizational strategy, helping connect work across the organization to accelerate the global energy transition.
Background
Lena brings more than 20 years of experience developing, testing, and scaling high-impact efficiency and clean energy solutions.
Prior to her current role, Lena served as chief strategy officer, chaired RMI’s Strategy Council, and served on the board of Canary Media. Based in Beijing, she served as managing director of RMI’s China program, leading a team that advised and supported China’s energy transition energy system-wide. Lena also led RMI’s US electricity program, focusing on utility business models and the integration of renewable and distributed energy resources into the grid. She cofounded RMI’s Electricity Innovation Lab (eLab), a multi-year collaboration of power-sector leaders working to unlock transformational solutions, and supported many electric utilities and regulators to customize and implement key solutions.
Lena has co-authored many key reports and articles at RMI, including RMI’s 2011 book Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for a New Energy Era, a roadmap for an economically grounded transition to a low-carbon US energy system.
Education
Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
Master of Environmental Management in Economics & Policy, Duke University
Certificate in Energy & Environment, Duke University
BA, Physics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Location
Boulder, CO
