Peter Nordell attended Yale, where he graduated with a degree in physics in 1988. He later earned a graduate degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern in 1993. Nordell rowed for the US in the eight at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, winning a bronze medal, and also rowed the eight at the 1987 World Championships.
In business Nordell worked for the Eaton Corporation from 1993-98 as a manufacturing manager. He was then with Axcelis Technologies until 2005. Nordell then co-founded and became CEO of NextSlide Imaging, a medical device software company.