Fresh Take ft. Calvin Butler

This Fresh Take interview featured Calvin Butler, CEO, Exelon Utilities. JB and Calvin discussed Exelon’s investment in workforce development initiatives in the region, the importance of supplier diversity in supporting minority-owned small businesses, and his own role as a community and business leader in Baltimore.

Hosted by JB Holston.  Produced by Jenna Klym, Justin Matheson-Turner, Christian Rodriguez, and Nina Sharma. Edited by Christian Rodriguez. 

Learn from leaders doing the work across the Capital Region and beyond. These conversations will showcase innovation, as well as history and culture across our region, to bridge the gap between how we got here and where we are going.

About our guest:

Calvin G. Butler Jr. is a senior executive vice president and chief operating officer at Exelon. Butler oversees Exelon’s six local electric and natural gas companies -- Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco. Together, they form the nation’s largest utility company by customer count, serving approximately 10 million electric and gas customers in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, respectively. Butler serves as vice chairman of each utility’s board and is a member of Exelon’s executive committee. In addition to serving as CEO of Exelon Utilities, Butler serves as the interim CEO of ComEd, overseeing management of the electric grid serving more than 4 million customers in Chicago and most of northern Illinois.

Butler previously served as CEO of BGE from 2014 to 2019. Prior to that role, Butler was BGE’s senior vice president, regulatory and external affairs. Butler also served as Exelon’s senior vice president of corporate affairs, Chief Human Resources Officer, and held other leadership positions at Exelon and ComEd (Chicago).

Butler serves on the boards of several prominent Baltimore-based organizations including the Baltimore Community Foundation, University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors, Greater Baltimore Committee, Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, the Center Club and Caves Valley Golf Club. He is immediate past chair of his alma mater, Bradley University. In addition, Butler serves on the boards of M&T Bank Corporation and M&T Bank, its principal banking subsidiary; the Institute of International Education, a not-for-profit organization focused on advancing scholarship, promoting access to education, and building economies; and the Library of Congress’ James Madison Council.

He has been recognized by several organizations for his leadership and community commitment. In 2021, The Daily Record named Butler to their “Power 100” list and has singled him out as one of its top 35 Influential Marylanders, as well as listed him three times as one of Maryland’s “Most Admired CEOs.” In 2020, he was honored with the BEYA Chairman’s Award, recognizing Black leaders for their meaningful contributions to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That same year, he was named among Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America,” and as Zpryme’s “ETS Thought Leader of the Year,” honoring those with the “inventive and brave vision needed to inspire the global energy ecosystem toward sustainable modernization.” In 2019, the Boy Scouts of America honored him with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award and he has been named by Baltimore Magazine as one of its “Top Ten Baltimoreans.”

Butler earned a bachelor’s degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and a Juris Doctor degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Mo. He received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Morgan State University in 2014.