Prior to being named CEO at the end of 2022, Butler was president and chief operating officer of Exelon with responsibilities for Exelon’s 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 at the company include senior vice president of Corporate Affairs at BGE and vice president of Governmental and Legislative Affairs at ComEd.
Before joining Exelon in 2008, Butler held senior leadership roles with the print, digital and supply chain solutions company R.R. Donnelley. Butler spent his early career with Central Illinois Light Company (CILCORP, Inc.), where he worked in government affairs, legal and strategy.
Butler serves as vice chair of the Board of Directors for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and as the chairman of the Board of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. He is the vice chair of the board of the Institute of International Education (IIE) and on the Board of Governors for Argonne National Laboratory. He is also on the boards of Battelle, Emerson Electric, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, the Economic Club of Chicago, the Greater Washington Partnership, the Caves Valley Golf Club and the Annika Sorenstam Foundation. He is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and serves on the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He is immediate past chair of the Greater Baltimore Committee and a past chair of the GridWise Alliance.
Butler has been recognized by several organizations for his leadership and community commitment. In 2024, Savoy magazine named him one of the “Most Influential Executives” in America; the Daily Record has also listed him three times as one of Maryland’s “Most Admired CEOs.” In 2020, he was named among Black Enterprise magazine’s “Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America.”
In 2022, the Boy Scouts of America recognized Butler with the Distinguished Citizen Award. That same year, The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture announced him as the first recipient of its “Titan Award.” Butler is an active member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
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.