In this interview Jan Blomstrann reflects on her unconventional 35‑year career with NRG Systems, a renewable‑energy company founded by her husband. She recounts how she unexpectedly became CEO in 2004, navigating family dynamics, gender bias, and the challenges of leading a global wind‑energy firm. Jan discusses her efforts to promote women in the wind industry and her role in founding the American Wind Wildlife Institute. She shares the honors she received, including the Wind Woman of the Year award and a Champion of Change invitation to a summit hosted by President Obama. Personal hardships are detailed: the divorce and buy‑out of her husband’s share, and a 2015 stage‑4 melanoma diagnosis, where she became the first patient treated with a newly approved immunotherapy at Dana‑Farber. Jan describes her recovery, renewed love for gardening, and the eventual decision to sell NRG Systems, outlining the selection process and her hopes for the company’s future. Throughout, she emphasizes creation, resilience, and the importance of leaving a positive legacy.
Chapters
I love in the early morning when it's still. I've got tomatoes in the garden this year that are just about ready to start picking, and I can't wait for that to happen. The flowers, the color, the fragrance, the changeability of everything. It's just— it's creation. When I look back at my work or my career, I think of it in terms of a 35-year voyage to create something that contributed to the world. It wasn't a typical path. I thought I was going to be a midwife. I never expected to be a CEO of a global renewable energy company. My husband started NRG Systems. This was his brainchild. It really felt like his company and I was assisting. Really wasn't aspiring to a leadership position, but there did come a time when he decided that he no longer wanted to be CEO. He approached me publicly and said, "I think Jan should be CEO." And we talked about it. We talked about it in private, and I really didn't know. The kids were in their teens, and I just wasn't sure I wanted to work that hard. I remember taking myself for a walk, a place that I go to for contemplation, and I thought about how, you know, I'm not ready to leave. I love my work. So if I say no, that means I'm going to be reporting to somebody else. Who's going to take it into the next chapter. And I asked myself a question. I said, you know, somebody's got to do this. And who's it going to be? So I became an unlikely CEO in 2004. What a great gift it was. I'm not saying it was easy. It was hard to adjust to the fact that I was never going to be the mother who was going on field trips with the kids.
NRG, I feel like, is all I really know, and it's always been a part of my life. Recycling and caring for the environment has been instilled in me since I was born. She was a fantastic mom from my perspective. I remember one day she told me that she was nervous that she wasn't there for me growing up because she was at the business so much, and I told her that's absolutely not true.
Jan is someone I truly admire. She is one of the most prominent women in the wind industry, not only for her work with this amazing company, but also for her efforts to try to bring more women into the wind industry and support them.
When you're the only woman in the room, you're not necessarily looked at as the expert. In fact, you might very well be mistaken for a wife or so-and-so's assistant, not, not as the leader yourself.
We're really grateful to Jan in founding the American Wind Wildlife Institute to protect wildlife for future generations. It's really no surprise that Jan has been the recipient of so many awards.
The biggest surprise of my life was the Wind Woman of the Year Award. I was floored. The most I could get out was, "Thank you." I was invited to the job summit hosted by President Obama. In May of 2012, I was honored as a Champion of Change in renewable energy. This was a happy time for me. It was exciting. It was just tremendous growth. I started to get some confidence and was starting to realize there was a power struggle at the top. I think my husband really wanted me to run the business, but I'm not sure he really wanted to abdicate his leadership in the business. I had had worries at the beginning about how this would affect family dynamics and our relationship. And I was right. The divorce was and probably will remain for the rest of my life just a crushing disappointment. I bought him out of the company and I became the sole owner. And I truly got the opportunity to run NRG Systems as I saw fit. At the time, Justin was CFO, and a few years later, he became the president of the company. I remained as CEO. I'm ever so glad that we had that opportunity for him to get going as leader, because in June of 2015, I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. I remember planting garlic in the fall, and I thought, "Why bother? I'm not even gonna be here next summer." And I just went in and I just plunked him in the ground. I landed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute the very week that the FDA approved a brand new immunotherapy treatment, and I became patient number 1. And it wasn't easy. It was a rough road, but it did what it was supposed to do. I'm here to tell about it. I am going to see another summer. I am going to have another garden. You become a different person when something like that happens. But I think back to that decision for us to make that leadership change, and it was a great thing for the company to have that leadership transition already in place. It forced us to grow up quickly, and we got some confidence in terms of our abilities to run the business as a team. And when I finally did come back, it was so clear to me that the time was right to go out and start the process to find the next new owner for the company. It was sort of surreal. How could anybody else do this? I felt somehow like I was betraying my employees or I was giving up. There was something like 80 interested parties that that narrowed down to 9 offers. It was really nice to know that the outside world valued what I had created. The company deserves an owner who has vim and vigor and passion and energy, and it gives me great joy to think of this company continuing on without me, and I don't have to worry about it.
I think my mom Mom has a renewed passion for life.
I bought into a camp in the Adirondacks. I took the cabin down and I'm rebuilding a new one. I love being near the water, you know, just living, enjoying, enjoying my cat, being outdoors, being in the woods where I love to be, the new love of my life and his dog. That's what matters right now. That's what makes me smile. I can do new things, and I'm just so excited about that. It is a new plate of creation. I'm gonna create something, something new, something different. Life is precious.
