This group of men and women are carrying on the strong management tradition by leading one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, one of the industry’s largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity and the largest nuclear fleet in the United States.
Exelon Corporate Officers
John W. Rowe, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Exelon Corporation
Frank M. Clark, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ComEd
Kenneth W. Cornew, Senior Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President, Exelon Power Team
Christopher M. Crane, Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; Chief Operating Officer, Exelon Generation; President and Chief Executive Officer, AmerGen
Ruth Ann M. Gillis, Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President, Exelon Business Services Company
Ian P. McLean, Executive Vice President, Finance and Markets, Exelon Corporation
J. Barry Mitchell, President and Chief Operating Officer, ComEd
Elizabeth A. Moler, Executive Vice President, Government and Environmental Affairs and Public Policy, Exelon Corporation
Denis P. O'Brien, Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President and CEO, PECO Energy
Mark Schiavoni, Senior Vice President, Exelon Generation; President, Exelon Power
William A. Von Hoene, Jr., Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Exelon Corporation
Andrea L. Zopp, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Exelon Corporation
John W. Rowe
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Exelon Corporation
John W. Rowe, 63, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon Corporation, a utility holding company headquartered in Chicago. Exelon has the largest market capitalization in the electric utility industry. Its retail affiliates serve 5.4 million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania, and its generation affiliate operates the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the nation.
Rowe is the senior chief executive in the utility industry, having served in such positions since 1984. Rowe has led Exelon since its formation in 2000 through the merger of PECO Energy and the parent of Commonwealth Edison. Rowe previously held chief executive officer positions at the New England Electric System and Central Maine Power Company, served as general counsel of Consolidated Rail Corporation, and was a partner in the law firm of Isham, Lincoln and Beale. Rowe serves as chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, is a past chairman of the Edison Electric Institute, and is a co-chairman of the National Commission on Energy Policy, an industry and environmental organization dealing with climate change. He is a member of the boards of directors of Sunoco and the Northern Trust Company. In January 2008, Institutional Investor named Rowe the best electric utilities CEO in America.
Rowe is committed to a wide variety of civic and charitable activities, with a focus on education, science, history and diversity. He serves as chairman of Chicago’s Commercial Club, the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Chicago History Museum, and is a member of the boards of the Field Museum, the Civil War Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Along with his wife, Jeanne, and son, William, he established the Rowe Family Charitable Trust. The Rowes and the Family Trust have founded the Rowe Professorship of Architecture and the Rowe Family Endowed Chair in Sustainable Energy at IIT, the Rowe Professorship of Byzantine History and the Rowe Family Professorship in Greek History at the University of Wisconsin, and the Curator of Reptile Fossils at the Field Museum. The Trust also co-founded the Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood. The Rowes serve as patrons of the John Paul II parochial school on Chicago’s southwest side.
Rowe has been widely recognized for his civic and professional leadership. Recent awards include the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Humanitarian award (2008), University of Arizona’s Executive of the Year Award (2007), the Union League of Philadelphia’s Founder’s Award for Business Leadership (2005), the American Jewish Committee’s Civic Leadership Award (2004), El Valor’s Corporate Visionary Award (2003), the Spanish Coalition for Jobs’ Corporate Leadership Award (2002), the City Club of Chicago’s Citizen of the Year Award (2002), and the Anti-Defamation League's World of Difference Award (2000).
Rowe holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif. He has also received that university’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Rowe holds honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin, DePaul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Drexel University, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, Bryant College and Thomas College.
Rowe and his wife, Jeanne, reside in Chicago, as does their son, William, an associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.
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Frank M. Clark
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ComEd
Frank Clark, 63, is the chairman and chief executive officer of ComEd, which provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across Illinois, or 70 percent of the state’s population. Clark also serves on the ComEd board of directors. ComEd is the largest electric utility in Illinois and a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation.
Prior to his appointment as chairman and chief executive officer of ComEd, Clark served as president of ComEd, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, and executive vice president and chief of staff of Exelon. Since joining ComEd in 1966, Clark rose steadily through the ranks, holding various positions in both corporate support and line functions. During his 42-year career at ComEd, he held key leadership positions at a number of business-critical functions across the company, including: customer service operations; marketing and sales; regulatory, governmental and community affairs; information technology; communications; human resources; labor relations; and distribution services.
Clark serves as co-chairman of the DuSable Capital Campaign, a $24 million initiative to expand the DuSable Museum, the nation’s first museum devoted to African-American arts and culture. In addition, Clark was instrumental in revitalizing the Harold Washington Cultural Center on Chicago’s South Side, which features the ComEd Theater, a 1,000-seat performing arts hall.
Clark serves on the board of trustees of the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, DePaul University, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, University of Chicago Medical Center, and The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. He also is on the board of directors of Metropolitan Family Services, Governors State University Foundation, Illinois Manufacturers Association, Big Shoulders Fund, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and the executive committee of The Chicago Community Trust.
Clark sits on the governing board of the Illinois Council on Economic Education and is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Economic Club of Chicago, The Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Executives’ Club of Chicago.
Clark serves on the board of directors for Waste Management, Inc., Harris Financial Corporation and Aetna Inc.
Clark received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Governors State University in 2005 and an honorary doctorate of law from DePaul University in 2004. Among the numerous awards he has received are the National Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Man of the Year Award from the Rich Township Business Association and the Rerum Novarum Award, bestowed by St. Joseph’s Seminary of Loyola University. In 2002, he was a recipient of the prestigious HistoryMakers Award.
In 2008, U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology Magazine named Clark to its annual list of the 100 Most Important Blacks in Technology. Clark also was ranked among the 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America by Fortune magazine in 2002.
Clark received his bachelor’s and law degrees from DePaul University.
Clark and his wife, Vera, have two sons, Frank III and Steve.
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Kenneth W. Cornew
Senior Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President, Exelon Power Team
A 21-year veteran of the electric utility industry, Kenneth W. Cornew, 43, heads one of the nation’s largest, most diversified generation portfolios, consisting of assets in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and Texas with a total revenue of over $10 billion in 2007. He also heads the growing retail business of Exelon Energy that serves electric and gas retail customers in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. As president of Power Team, Cornew is responsible for ensuring the optimization of Exelon’s commodity portfolios and for creating the maximum value for the Company and its shareholders.
Cornew has been a leader of Power Team since its inception when the group was created to sell into the wholesale power market the output of Exelon generation and to grow the wholesale energy portfolio. He continues to play an instrumental role in the evolution of disciplined operational processes and innovation that are a hallmark of Power Team’s success.
Cornew has developed and strategically organized Power Team’s trading operation -- including short and long term power transactions, generation scheduling and generation dispatch – which serves wholesale and retail load obligations and proprietary trading functions. He has been and continues to be a leader in regulatory advocacy for the industry helping to shape the wholesale market evolution in the various regions of the country where Exelon has generation assets.
Cornew also has heavily supported merger and acquisition activities and corporate strategy for Exelon Corporation. Cornew performed an active role in the creation of Exelon by leading the integration of Unicom’s and PECO Energy’s power marketing groups as well as their generation and load portfolios. He was also an instrumental member of a team that evaluated the AmerGen nuclear generation asset acquisition which resulted in the purchase of ownership interest in Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey, Clinton Power Station in Illinois and Three Mile Island Generating Station in Pennsylvania.
Early in his career, Cornew worked in PECO Energy’s regulated retail business as a large industrial account manager in southeastern Pennsylvania. He was also an engineer in the PJM Interconnection L.L.C. where he scheduled generation and power interchange as well as evaluated the performance of PJM’s generation dispatch and transmission scheduling operations.
Cornew obtained a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in business administration from Drexel University.
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Christopher M. Crane
Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; Chief Operating Officer, Exelon Generation; President and Chief Executive Officer, AmerGen
Crane leads the operations of Exelon Generation which includes a fleet of 10 nuclear stations with 17reactors, as well as the company's fossil and hydroelectric fleet that contains over 100 units. The nuclear fleet is the largest in the United States and the third largest in the world. The nuclear fleet along with the fossil and hydroelectric fleet are capable of producing over 25,000 megawatts of electricity.
Crane has worked in the nuclear industry in progressively more responsible leadership roles for more than 25 years. He joined the company (then ComEd) in 1998 as vice president for boiling water reactor operations and was a major part of the ComEd nuclear program recovery. He oversaw the restart of LaSalle Unit 2, was promoted to senior vice president of nuclear operations in July 1999 and became chief operating officer of Exelon Nuclear in June 2003. He was named President of Exelon Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer in January 2004.
Crane provided leadership in effectively merging the ComEd, PECO and AmerGen nuclear operations in 2000, and has directed the fleet’s consistent top-quartile performance in cost and capacity factor, industry-leading refueling outage execution and consistently safe, efficient operations.
Crane is a former site vice president at TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama. He worked at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Tennessee, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona, and Comanche Peak in Texas.
Crane is actively involved in leadership roles in the nuclear industry, including membership in the INPO board of directors, the Nuclear Energy Institute's Nuclear Strategic Issues Advisory Committee, the Foundation of Nuclear Studies, and is a key leader of the industry's Materials Initiative Group.
Crane studied Electrical Technology at New Hampshire Technical College, and attended Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He has held a senior reactor operator certification.
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Ruth Ann M. Gillis
Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President, Exelon Business Services Company
As president, Exelon Business Services Company (BSC), Gillis, 54, is responsible for providing oversight for transactional and corporate services to the Exelon system companies. BSC encompasses information technology, supply chain, legal, communications, real estate and facilities, human resources and finance, as well as other advisory, professional, technical and support services. Gillis is also a member of Exelon’s executive committee, pension investment committee, and the corporate risk management committee as well as a member of the Exelon Foundation Board.
Prior to her current position, Gillis was responsible for areas including field operations, customer satisfaction, public/external affairs, and real estate and property management for ComEd as executive vice president, ComEd. From Exelon’s inception in October 2000 until October 2002, Gillis served as chief financial officer of Exelon Corporation. Prior to the merger, she was CFO of Unicom Corporation. In addition, she was senior vice president of competitive operations, which included customer service operations, marketing and sales and new business development, all residing in ComEd. Gillis also was responsible for the unregulated businesses residing in Unicom Enterprises, Inc. and Unicom Resources. She joined the company in 1997 as vice president and treasurer of Unicom Corporation. As treasurer, Gillis was responsible for the corporation’s financing activities, cash management, financial risk management and treasury functions.
Before joining Unicom, Gillis was CFO, treasurer and vice president of the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System. Her responsibilities included oversight of all aspects of corporate finance and treasury for a $600 million health care system anchored by the University of Chicago Hospitals.
From 1977 through 1995, Gillis worked for First Chicago Corporation (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), where she held a variety of lending and staff positions.
Gillis donates her time to various community organizations. She has been an active member of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation Women’s Board since 1986, and is the president of the foundation’s Board of Trustees. She serves as a trustee of the Goodman Theatre Board and is a board member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Gillis is a member of the Chicago Network and the Economic Club of Chicago.
Gillis serves on the board of directors for Potlatch Corporation (NYSE: PCH).
Gillis received her bachelor’s degree in economics from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was distinguished as Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude with high honors in 1977. In 1980, she graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, with a concentration in finance.
Gillis and her husband reside in Chicago and have two sons.
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Ian P. McLean
Executive Vice President, Finance and Markets, Exelon Corporation
As executive vice president of finance and markets, McLean, 59, oversees Exelon’s finance organization, corporate development, and power marketing group. These groups combined comprise over 1,000 employees predominantly located in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. McLean was promoted to this role in January 2008. In this role, McLean is responsible for focusing on strategic direction, enhancing efficiencies and coordination to maximize shareholder value and creating a positive message to our investment community. Although he has only been in this position a short time he has already had a positive impact on the entire company where his leadership will be the driving force for teamwork and collaboration.
Prior to his current role, McLean was the president of the power marketing group called Exelon Power Team, handling one of the nation’s largest most diversified generation portfolios. He had responsibility for creating maximum value for the company and its shareholders as he managed the generation portfolio optimization, fuels, wholesale power marketing, and Exelon Energy. Exelon Energy is the company’s growing unregulated retail electricity and natural gas marketing entity in the Midwest. McLean was instrumental in instilling a disciplined process culture and in harnessing the creativity of the talent within Exelon Power Team, which are now the foundational cornerstones of the organization’s success. During his tenure, Exelon Power Team has been on the cutting edge of development of proprietary systems that provide for seamless load management, scheduling, dispatch, communication and reconciliation. In addition, McLean cultivated a depth of skill sets within the organization to include a variety of analytical roles geared toward managing risk from a variety of perspectives.
From 1999 – 2007 as president, Exelon Power Team, the portfolio grew from 10,000 MW to 32,000MW (220 percent increase) while revenues have increased from $4 Billion to $10 billion for the same period. McLean led Power Team to be successful through several years where the volatility in the industry had a dramatically negative effect on many other companies in the industry.
Prior to joining Exelon, McLean was group vice president of industrial commodities management for Engelhard Corporation, where he was responsible for global trading, refining and recycling businesses with sites around the world. Engelhard Corporation, now incorporated into BASF, is a leading supplier of catalysts used in the petroleum, chemical, and food industries. An unusually diversified company, Engelhard also produces a variety of industrial products such as paper coating agents, color pigments, temperature sensing devices, and precious metal-coated anodes, as well as materials for consumer goods such as cosmetics and automotive paints.
McLean’s professional accomplishments are complemented by his active engagement in the community. He is a board member of the Chester County Red Cross. McLean also serves on the Lerner College of Business Advisory Board for the University of Delaware. Additionally, McLean has been a leading supporter of the Granville Academy in Trenton, New Jersey.
McLean received his Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in mathematics from Teesside University, located in Northern England.
McLean and his wife, Kathryn, have four children and one grandchild.
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J. Barry Mitchell
President and Chief Operating Officer, ComEd
Barry Mitchell, 60, as president and COO of ComEd, is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, which delivers electric service to approximately 3.8 million customers throughout Northern Illinois. ComEd has 5,900 employees and revenues of approximately $6.1 billion.
Mitchell joined PECO Energy Company as an analyst in the finance department in 1971 and progressed through various positions in finance and corporate planning until he was named vice president and treasurer in December 1994. In October 2000, Exelon Corporation was created as a result of the merger between PECO Energy Corporation and Unicom Corporation. Mitchell was named vice president and treasurer of Exelon Corporation. In April 2002, he was named senior vice president and treasurer; in September 2003 he was also named business unit chief financial officer; and in March 2005, he was named chief financial officer. In November 2005, he was appointed president of ComEd; and in September 2007 he was also named chief operating officer.
Mitchell serves on the board of Energy Insurance Mutual, advisory board of the Factory Mutual Insurance Company and he is chairman of the Illinois Energy Association. He serves as a member of the executive committee of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (Illinois Chapter), a board member of the Merit School of Music, the Chicago Urban League and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Mitchell graduated from Lehigh University in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and MBA in finance in 1971. He is also a 1987 graduate of the Executive Development Program at the Darden School of the University of Virginia.
Mitchell and his wife, Beth, have three sons.
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Elizabeth Anne (“Betsy”) Moler
Executive Vice President, Government and Environmental Affairs and Public Policy, Exelon Corporation
Moler, 59, joined Exelon Corporation (formerly Unicom) in January 2000. She heads the company’s Washington, D.C. office, and serves as a member of Exelon’s strategy and policy committee. Moler is responsible for all aspects of Exelon’s federal government affairs initiatives. She is also responsible for Exelon’s corporate environmental, health, and safety initiatives, and leads Exelon’s wholesale market development team efforts.
Moler had a long career in government service. She was a staff member on Capitol Hill for 20 years. She served as counsel and senior counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from 1976 to 1988 under Senators Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson and J. Bennett Johnston. In 1988, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and confirmed by the United States Senate, to serve as a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton reappointed her. In 1993, she was designated by President Clinton to serve as the Commission’s chair. Under her leadership FERC adopted a landmark initiative (Order Nos. 888 and 889) to require utilities to open their transmission lines on an equal access basis to their competitors, paving the way for robust wholesale competitive electricity markets. She continued to serve as the Commission’s chair until June 1997, when she was appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate, to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Energy. She resigned her duties in governmental service in October 1998. During 1999 she was a partner in the law firm of Vinson & Elkins and a member of the Unicom board of directors.
Moler is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, American Bar Association and serves on the board of directors for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
Moler has been a recipient of the National Energy Resources Organization Distinguished Service Award, the Energy Daily Annual Public Policy Leadership Award, and the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment, Woman of the Year Award. She was recognized by The Hill newspaper as a “Top Corporate Lobbyist” in Washington in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007 and she is listed in the Who’s Who of American Women, Who’s Who in American Law and The Energy Who’s Who Directory.
Moler received her bachelor’s degree in 1971 from The American University and Juris Doctor degree from The George Washington University in 1977. Moler also completed graduate study courses at Johns Hopkins University.
Moler is married to Thomas B. Williams and has two children, Blake and Eleanor.
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Denis P. O’Brien
Executive Vice President, Exelon Corporation; President and CEO, PECO Energy
O’Brien, 48, is responsible for leadership over PECO’s operations and overall performance associated with service reliability, customer satisfaction, and regulatory and external affairs. PECO employs about 2,200 people and generates approximately $5.1 billion in annual revenues. PECO serves 1.6 million electric and approximately 480,000 natural gas customers. It is part of Exelon Corporation, one of the nation’s leading energy companies with $44.3 billion in assets, more than $15 billion in annual revenues, and named “best of breed” among energy companies by Forbes magazine in 2003. PECO and its sister utility, ComEd in Chicago, comprise the largest electric utility in the U.S.
Prior to being appointed to this leadership position, O’Brien served as executive vice president and previously as vice president for operations with responsibility for engineering, construction, maintenance and emergency response for the company’s natural gas and electric distribution systems.
O’Brien has 25 years of utility experience in engineering, operations, strategic planning and executive management. His special assignments have included strategic planning on mergers and acquisitions, development of the company’s deregulation strategy and organizational redesigns to improve performance.
O’Brien serves on numerous civic and industry boards, including the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, American Gas Association, Pennsylvania Business Roundtable, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Select Greater Philadelphia, The Franklin Institute, WHYY, Inc., and the Drexel University board of trustees.
O’Brien holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Rutgers University and earned a master’s degree in business from Drexel University.
O’Brien and his wife, Carolyn, have three children.
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Mark Schiavoni
Senior Vice President, Exelon Generation; President, Exelon Power
Schiavoni, 52, is senior vice president of Exelon Generation and president of Exelon Power, a position he assumed in August of 2004. As president of Exelon Power, Schiavoni oversees the following functions: fossil and hydro generation operations, outage and work management, engineering and technical support, Sithe/Exelon New England holdings/TEG I&II, new generation development, and operational oversight of co-owned facilities and purchased power contracts.
Previously, Schiavoni was vice president of operations for Exelon Power. He was responsible for the regular operation, including operations, maintenance, outages and work management, at Exelon’s fossil and hydroelectric facilities. Additionally, Schiavoni was vice president, Exelon Power Northeast Operations, and held operational responsibility for all of Exelon Power’s plants in the Northeast. In that role, he was responsible not only for the operational aspects of the plants in the Northeast, but also for overseeing the construction and integration of the new generation assets that were part of the Exelon Power fleet at the time.
Schiavoni joined Exelon in January 2000 as maintenance director and plant manager for Exelon Nuclear’s LaSalle Station. Prior to his position at LaSalle, he served as the assistant plant director for maintenance for Florida Power’s Crystal River 3 nuclear generating station. He also worked as maintenance superintendent at FirstEnergy’s Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to his utility experience, Schiavoni spent 22 years in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear program.
Schiavoni is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion. He also serves on the board of the Southern Chester County United Way.
Schiavoni and his wife, Amy, have four children.
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William A. Von Hoene, Jr.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Exelon Corporation
As general counsel, William A. Von Hoene, Jr., 54, has responsibility for all of Exelon’s legal affairs, corporate governance and internal audit and controls. Von Hoene joined Exelon, one of the nation’s largest public utilities and the owner of the largest fleet of nuclear plants in the country, in February 2002, as vice president and deputy general counsel in charge of the company’s litigation. In March 2004, he was promoted to senior vice president, in January 2005 to acting general counsel, in February 2006 to general counsel, and in February 2008 to executive vice president.
Prior to joining Exelon, Von Hoene was a senior partner at Jenner & Block, specializing in complex civil and white-collar criminal litigation. While at Jenner & Block, he served on the management committee and, at various times, as hiring partner and chairperson of the firm’s pro bono and diversity committees.
Von Hoene has served on numerous civic and public interest boards of directors. He is past president of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., and past general counsel to the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. He currently serves on the boards of directors for the Joffrey Ballet and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago.
Von Hoene received the 2007 Association of Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Award, which recognizes the most outstanding corporate pro bono program in the country, and the 2008 Vanguard Award from the Chicago Bar Association, recognizing outstanding contributions in making the legal profession more accessible and reflective of the community at large.
Von Hoene is a 1980 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where he served on the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif, and a 1976 graduate of Yale University.
Von Hoene is married to Nikki Zollar and has three children, William L. Von Hoene, Branden Zollar and Grant Sanders.
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Andrea L. Zopp
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Exelon Corporation
Zopp, 51, leads the corporation’s human resources, diversity, labor and employee relations and security functions.
Zopp was appointed senior vice president, human resources, Exelon Corporation, in 2006. Her responsibilities included human resources strategy and work force planning, compensation, employee health and benefits, and corporate security.
Prior to joining Exelon, she was senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Sears Holding Corporation, a $50 billion retail company formed by the merger of Sears Roebuck and Company and Kmart. In this position she had responsibility for legal affairs, governance, public relations, government affairs, and compliance. She began work with the company in July 2003 as senior vice president and general counsel of Sears Roebuck and Company.
Before joining Sears, Zopp was vice president, deputy general counsel in the law department at Sara Lee Corporation. There she managed senior attorneys at the operating divisions, risk management, environmental services and safety. She also supervised litigation and provided counseling on strategic issues. Prior to Sara Lee, Zopp was a partner in the litigation department of the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, specializing in the areas of commercial, employment and white-collar criminal litigation. Zopp was also the First Assistant State’s Attorney in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office where she was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nation’s second largest prosecutor’s office.
From 2005-2007, Zopp served as a director of Andrew Corporation, a publicly traded $2 billion, international manufacturer and supplier of telecommunication systems, components and solutions, where she served on the compensation and nominating and governance committees. She is also chairman of the board of directors of the Chicago Area Project, a community-based delinquency prevention program. Zopp is a member and former president of the Chicago Inn of Court and is active in the American Bar Association, where she served as a member of the Section of Litigation Council. She is also a former member of the board of managers of the Chicago Bar Association. Zopp is a member of the Black Women Lawyer’s Association, The Chicago Network, and The Economic Club. In March 2000, she was named by Illinois Governor George Ryan to serve on the Commission to Review the Illinois Death Penalty Process. In May 2003, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley named her as co-chair of a panel reviewing the City’s building and safety code enforcement in the wake of the E-2 Nightclub tragedy. In September 2004, she became chair of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Magnet and Selective Enrollment School Admissions for the Chicago Public Schools. Zopp also serves on the board of trustees of the National Urban League and is on the board of directors of the Leadership Greater Chicago, the Black Ensemble Theater and The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Zopp is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Zopp received the Visionary Award from the Black Women Lawyer’s Association (2004), the
Luminary Award from the Girl Scouts of Chicago (2005) and she was named one of Chicago United’s 2005 Business Leaders of Color from Chicago United.
Zopp received a bachelor’s degree in history and science and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard University. She began her legal career as a law clerk to United States District Judge George N. Leighton in the Northern District of Illinois. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Harvard Law School, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago School of Law.
Zopp and her husband, Bill, have three children, Alyssa, Kelsey and Will.
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