James Jordan

James Jordan is the founder and President of the Interstate Maglev Project and Executive Vice President of Maglev 2000.

The energy crises of the 1970s focused the Navy career of James Jordan. The new era of scarce oil and rapid increases in oil prices dramatically introduced Commander Jordan to the national military and economic security consequences of America’s growing dependence on oil. Commander Jordan served as the first director of the Navy Energy R&D program office in the Pentagon. As director, he developed strategies and technologies aimed at sustaining military and national economic security in the new oil reality.

In 1979, Mr. Jordan retired from the Navy and became a senior policy advisor to the late Senator John C. Stennis, Chairman, Armed Services Committee and Defense Appropriations Committee. In this capacity, Mr. Jordan was a U.S. Senate staff leader in energy, transportation, environment, and agricultural policy.

In 1988, after leaving the U.S. Senate, Mr. Jordan founded several entrepreneurial ventures directed toward development of environmentally sustainable energy, and economic growth: efficient electric Maglev (magnetic levitation) transportation, carbon capture and storage, nuclear waste isolation, hydrogen and electric power co-generation, advanced nuclear power generation and earth science data management.

For example in earth science data management, Mr. Jordan founded the Consortium International Earth Science Information Network, (www.ciesin.org), now located at Columbia University. In 1992, Mr. Jordan introduced CIESIN to the U.N. Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED) in Rio.

Education: MBA, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA; Distinguished Graduate, Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defense University, Washington, DC; B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, Student Body President and Graduate of Senior High School, Greensboro, NC.