Most people don’t give a lot of thought to how much energy they depend on each day to power their homes and do their jobs. But for Calvin Butler, JD ’94, energy is always on his mind. Every day, he strives to provide the reliable and resilient energy people need.
“As president and CEO of Exelon, my main goal is to keep the lights on and the gas flowing,” he says.
Exelon is one of the nation’s largest utility companies, serving more than 10.7 million customers in Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
“Our operating companies have been rated as some of the most reliable utility companies in the nation, and we have a long history of service and innovation in this industry — nearly 800 years between all of our utilities,” Butler says. One of Exelon’s subsidiaries, Baltimore Gas & Electric, was the first gas utility in the country and has been in service for 209 years.
“I think about the legacy Exelon is leaving behind, and I want to build upon that as CEO,” Butler says.
So how does a lawyer end up running a Fortune 200 utility company? It all began when Butler accepted a job in the legal department at a public utility in Peoria, Illinois, after graduating from WashU Law. He then moved on to work in a variety of areas at RR Donnelley in Chicago, which was the world’s largest printing company at the time.
“The most pivotal moment in my career was when I had an opportunity to learn operations at RR Donnelley,” Butler says. “It showed me I could take my legal career, merge that with operations, and still deliver profit and loss responsibility. I’ve built off that throughout my career.”
In 2008, Exelon recruited him to work in their largest utility, ComEd, in Chicago, before transferring him to Baltimore to spearhead a complex merger between Exelon and Constellation Energy. Following the merger’s successful completion, Butler was asked to head up corporate affairs for Baltimore Gas & Electric.
He was named the utility’s CEO — his first CEO role — in 2014, spending five years there before taking on the role of CEO of Exelon’s utility business, encompassing six local energy companies. After a later stint as COO at Exelon, Butler was promoted to CEO in 2022. He’s now working to solve the energy sector’s biggest challenges: energy security and affordability.
“We need a secure energy grid that is protected from both physical and digital attacks and can also handle shifting weather patterns. Plus, we need to maintain that level of reliability, resiliency and security at an affordable rate.”
Calvin Butler, JD ’94
Delivering clean energy is another area of focus for Butler. By 2050, Exelon aims to have net-zero business-driven emissions. By 2030, half of the company’s fleet of vehicles will be electric.
“We’re dedicated to delivering clean energy, but we have to do it in a very thoughtful, systematic and equitable way,” Butler says. “If we don’t have all of the energy sources available — including nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, gas and coal — energy demand will go up and so will prices.”
In 2025, Butler was named chair of the board of directors of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI). The trade association brings together investor-owned utility companies to develop and advocate for energy policies at the federal and state levels.
“I need to ensure that EEI is well represented on Capitol Hill because I want the policies we’re advocating for to impact our member companies and our customers in the right way,” he says.
Butler knows that building the energy workforce of the future is also vital, and Exelon offers an award-winning workforce development program in the communities it serves. The program has been recognized with the Chair’s Award for Workforce Development Leadership from the Center for Energy Workforce Development.
“We’ve invested more than $75 million since 2019 in our workforce development program, and some of the most exciting programs we offer involve students,” Butler says. “In summer 2025, we had over 280 interns representing 118 colleges. We also had 400 high school students participate in a STEM program where they spent a week learning from our leadership team.”
Butler says the opportunity he had as a student to learn from leaders in the legal field is pivotal to everything he does today. “I came to WashU to study under Richard Lazarus, a preeminent environmental law professor,” he says. “Amazing professors, as well as lifelong friendships I developed, made WashU a remarkable place. I share my love of WashU with the next generation at every opportunity.”
