Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is pleased to announce the addition to the organization's team of Bruce Nilles as a Senior Fellow and Uday Varadarajan as a Principal.

"RMI is excited to have two respected experts join our team to bolster our ability to secure a low-carbon future. Bruce Nilles has extensive experience reducing overreliance on coal and securing investments into clean energy, and Uday Varadarajan's experience developing data analytics will significantly bolster our efforts to secure a low-carbon future," said RMI CEO Jules Kortenhorst. 

Prior to joining RMI, Nilles was the Senior Campaign Director for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, which he helped launch and led for the past 15 years. This campaign played an important role in securing the retirement and replacement of more than half of the nation's coal plants, which in turn slashed air pollution across the United States and saved thousands of lives annually.

"I am thrilled to be joining the amazing team at RMI, where I will be focusing on helping to accelerate our progress equitably replacing fossil fuels with clean energy. This includes exploring how we take the lessons we have learned slashing dangerous carbon pollution in the electric sector and applying them to other sectors, including the buildings and industrial sectors," said Bruce Nilles.

Varadarajan joins from the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and will bring his expertise in the intersection of policy and finance to RMI's electricity work. At CPI, he led their US Energy Finance team, identifying innovative financing and regulatory solutions to drive the clean energy transition. In addition, Varadarajan has prior experience working in the White House Office of Management and Budget overseeing approval of advanced vehicle manufacturing loans. 

"I'm also very excited to be able to contribute to ongoing efforts at RMI and add a financial and policy lens to the great technical and economic work that RMI is known for," said Uday Varadarajan.

Varadarajan started with RMI on July 1, 2018 and Nilles started on August 6, 2018.

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