About Jonathan Thompson
About Jonathan Thompson
I founded OK Concepts to help organizations approach energy as a strategic discipline rather than a narrow technical exercise.
My background spans engineering consulting, public-sector leadership, and long-range decarbonization strategy. Across that work, I have focused on the same challenge: helping organizations make better decisions about complex energy systems and the infrastructure investments that shape their future.
For nearly three decades, I have worked across building systems, campus and portfolio planning, electrification strategy, utility coordination, and climate-aligned infrastructure development. My work combines technical depth with systems thinking, helping clients move from isolated energy problems toward integrated strategies that are technically sound, operationally realistic, and aligned with long-term goals.
Most recently, I served as Head of Energy at the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In that role, I worked to turn energy from a back-office utility issue into a strategic platform for decarbonization, resilience, infrastructure planning, and public benefit across the agency’s portfolio and development work.
I helped build the internal foundation for a more ambitious energy function at NYCEDC: one that connected building performance, city policy, utility coordination, capital planning, and neighborhood-scale infrastructure. That work was not limited to individual projects. It involved creating the frameworks, relationships, and strategies that allowed those projects to exist.
A central part of that effort was helping shape portfolio-wide energy and emissions planning, linking modernization, electrification, and Local Law 97 compliance to real capital decisions. I also played a major role in advancing early thermal energy network concepts within NYCEDC, including the idea that public assets could serve as anchor loads for neighborhood-scale ambient loop systems in places like Sunset Park and Hunts Point.
That work required more than technical analysis. It required building alignment across institutions, agencies, utilities, consultants, and public stakeholders so energy planning could be treated as coordinated infrastructure rather than isolated facility management.
What I bring to OK Concepts is that same orientation: clear thinking, technical rigor, and the ability to translate complex energy challenges into actionable pathways.
OK Concepts is built around the belief that strong energy strategy should make complex systems understandable, connect technical analysis to real decisions, respect organizational constraints, and create a credible path from vision to implementation.