Exelon CEO Calvin Butler visited Howard University on January 28 to kick off the Spring 2025 Executive Lecture Series. Butler, the company’s first Black CEO, spent a day with Howard business students, giving detailed insights into his journey in the corporate world. His lecture was titled “Lead with Purpose; Leave a Legacy of Impact.” 

Exelon is a Fortune 200 company and the nation’s largest utility company, serving more than 10.5 million customers.

Prior to being named CEO at the end of 2022, Butler was president and chief operating officer of Exelon with responsibilities for its six local energy companies: Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO, and Pepco. Butler also served as CEO of BGE from 2014 to 2019. Previous roles with the organization include serving as senior vice president of corporate affairs at BGE and vice president of Governmental and Legislative Affairs at ComEd. 

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 honorary doctorates from Morgan State University in 2014 and Delaware State University in 2024. 

If you missed the lecture, don’t worry. Butler answered questions directly from our staff, allowing us to gain additional insights into his career, his thoughts on leadership, and how to attain success. He also discussed why coming to the Howard was important to him.  

Howard Staff: What motivated you to come to Howard University and give your lecture on leading with purpose to leave an impactful legacy? 

Butler: Howard University is a storied institution with a rich legacy of educating and preparing the Black and brown innovators, creatives, thought leaders, and changemakers in our country and in the world.  

What an incredible honor to be able to dialogue with students who are on their way toward leading us into the future. I hope I can be of some help to them by sharing my story, but truthfully, I’m also excited to learn something from all of them. A good leader is a perpetual student. I want to hear what Howard’s students think, so I can continue to grow and be inspired to do more, be a better leader, and power a cleaner and brighter future for Exelon’s customers and communities.

Selfishly, we’re also keenly interested in building the energy workforce of the future. So, I hope some of these top students will want to come and work for us one day. We’d be lucky to have them here. 

Howard Staff: What milestones in your career were most integral in leading you to your current position? 

Butler: I went to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and, after being the first person in my family to graduate from college, I ended up going to law school. After that, I was recruited to join RR Donnelly, a supply chain solutions company. Not too long after getting there, they put me in charge of running the second shift of a manufacturing plant. I went from a suit and tie to safety glasses and steel-toe boots, left my office and my leather briefcase, and I had to get down on the floor with the men and women doing the work. I had to learn the operations and to understand what motivated the people so that I could lead them. 

That move stretched and grew me in ways I never anticipated. I learned to connect with people on a fundamental level.  I learned to do well in the job I was in before trying to get to the next job. 

As I have moved along on this leadership journey, I have continued to deepen my understanding that leading is not about me. It’s about what I can do for others. That’s pivotal to how I led when I became the first African American CEO of Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) in 2014, and how I lead now as the first African American CEO of Exelon. 

Leadership is a privilege well-earned, but it is also a responsibility.  

Howard Staff: What has been the most important leadership lesson you have learned during your career? 

Butler: There are a few practical lessons that I’ve learned about career building that I wish I knew when I was still in undergrad. One is to have a clear vision of what you want and a map of how you’re going to get there — and then to revisit that map every few years to make sure you’re on track. The other is to be intentional about your efforts. That means just about everything you do and everyone you surround yourself with should be in service of your goals. If you have people around you who aren’t helping you achieve your goals, they’re hurting you.  

Lastly, I’d say that it’s important to own your brand. If you’ve mastered the art of intentionality, then owning your brand should be easy. But if not, take the time to find out from others what your brand is and then decide if it matches what you think about yourself. If it doesn’t, it’s time to revisit that map we talked about earlier and figure out how to get back on track.  

Howard Staff: What message do you want students to take from your lecture? 

Butler: I really want these bright, ambitious, potential-filled young people to know that they can do anything they want in the world of business, but they will achieve greater success — and likely, achieve it sooner — if they not only have goals, but understand what their purpose is for wanting to achieve those goals. In other words, what is the impact they want to have through their leadership? 

Leadership is a privilege well-earned, but it is also a responsibility.  

My goal in my work at Exelon is to provide safe, reliable, and resilient service to all of our 10.5 million customers, deliver value to our shareholders, satisfy the expectations of my board of directors, and keep 20,000 Exelon team members employed and able to feed their families, pay their mortgages, send their children to school, go on vacations, and put something away for a rainy day. That’s a lot of people depending on me — and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.  

But I hope the students understand that all of that is my work, but it’s not my purpose. 

My purpose — what drives me and keeps me focused as Exelon’s president and CEO — is improving the circumstances of the people who have entrusted me to do the work. 

When I leave this role, hopefully a long time from now, I want to be able to look back and say that our customers and communities have been positively impacted by all that our teams have done to support and empower them, even as we work to lead the clean energy transition. 

By keeping focused on my purpose, I’m proud to say Exelon has truly been able to have tremendous impact in the communities we serve, donating over $15 million to HBCUs, including $2 million to Howard University. 

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