Former Energy Secretary Granholm becomes energy strategist

Key takeaways

• Granholm’s experience revitalizing Michigan’s automotive industry after the Great Recession offers valuable corporate perspective.
• Her oversight of $200 billion in clean energy projects will inform companies seeking investment opportunities.
• Her diplomatic skills will shape future public-private partnerships.

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Jennifer Granholm, the two-term Michigan governor who served as U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Joe Biden, was named senior counselor at “commercial diplomacy” firm DGA Group.

Her job is to advise multinational corporations on energy and infrastructure issues, including the nuclear power renaissance and electric grid modernization, and to help them identify organizational vulnerabilities and opportunities for investment.

“From energy security to industrial transformation, the choices leaders make today will shape their resilience and relevance for years to come,” Granholm said in a statement.

Granholm’s accomplishments include orchestrating Michigan’s economic recovery after the Great Recession, encouraging the auto industry’s wave of investment.

At the Department of Energy, Granholm managed a $200 billion portfolio of investments aimed at accelerating the U.S. transition to clean energy. During the last year of her tenure, in 2024, the U.S. more than doubled its solar power deployments — adding the equivalent of 30 Hoover Dams-worth of zero-carbon electricity. Plans to launch or expand more than 1,000 factories for building clean technologies — e.g., batteries, solar panels, small nuclear reactors — were announced as a result of policies she shaped.

Based on her LinkedIn post about the appointment, you can expect Granholm to focus on furthering “the great work DOE did to reshore and grow manufacturing in the U.S.,” — this time from the private sector perspective. 

“Thanks to everyone out there working to preserve the tax credits — the tool that makes the U.S. energy dominant, energy abundant, and irresistible for investment,” Granholm said.

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