Executive Leader Award

      John W. Rowe

John W. Rowe is the chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon Corporation, a utility holding company headquartered in Chicago. He 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 on the board and executive committee of the Nuclear Energy Institute and is the past chairman of NEI and the Edison Electric Institute. He is also 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, the Northern Trust Company, and UChicago Argonne LLC, which is responsible for governance of the Argonne National Laboratory. In both 2008 and 2009, 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 the Illinois Institute of Technology and president of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. He is the former chairman of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Chicago History Museum. He is a member of the boards of the Field Museum 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 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, the Rowe Professorship in Virology at the Morgridge Institute and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and the Curator of Evolutionary Biology 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 Pope John Paul II parochial school on Chicago’s southwest side and the Rowe Elementary School. Rowe is also chairman of the Renaissance Schools Fund, a nonprofit organization formed to fund charter schools in the City of Chicago.

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.