Good morning. At Exelon, one of the nation’s largest utility companies, finance is getting a bigger seat at the strategy table.
Jeanne Jones, the finance chief since 2022 and an almost 20-year veteran of the company, will take on the newly created role of EVP of finance and strategy on Oct. 5, putting her at the center of corporate strategy as electricity demand surges and utilities face mounting pressure to invest without driving up customer bills.
Jones will continue to report to Exelon President and CEO Calvin Butler. Robert Kleczynski will succeed Jones as CFO and become her direct report. Kleczynski currently serves as SVP, controller and head of tax.
“Jeanne’s leadership has been instrumental in helping Exelon deliver strong financial performance while maintaining our focus on delivering safe, reliable and affordable service for our customers,” Butler said in a statement. In her new role, Jones will continue to work “across the business and the energy sector to identify opportunities to deliver value for our customers and shareholders,” he said.
A shift in the CFO’s mandate
The move reflects a broader shift in the CFO’s role. The corporate strategy playbook is increasingly landing on the CFO’s desk. While finance chiefs have long led capital allocation and investor communication, they’re increasingly expected to help determine where the company places its biggest long-term bets alongside the CEO, Andy West, a senior partner at McKinsey and global co-leader of the firm’s Strategy and Corporate Finance practice, recently told me.
That evolution is particularly relevant in the utility industry, where electricity demand is growing, grids need modernization and companies face mounting pressure to invest while keeping customer bills affordable.
At Exelon, Jones will continue to oversee the company’s financial activities while helping lead integrated strategy efforts focused on trends affecting Exelon, its operating companies and the broader energy industry. The structure is designed to strengthen alignment between long-term strategy, capital allocation and operational execution, according to a company spokesperson.
A pure-play utility investing in the future
Chicago-based Exelon (No. 189 on the Fortune 500) serves 11 million customers through six regulated transmission and distribution utilities. Since spinning off its power generation business, Constellation Energy, in 2022, Exelon has focused solely on regulated utility operations. It doesn’t own power plants; instead, it manages the infrastructure that delivers electricity and gas to end users.
That makes capital allocation especially consequential. Exelon has to determine where and how aggressively to invest in its networks as demand rises, while balancing the costs ultimately borne by customers against the need to build infrastructure for the future.
Jones has been at Exelon for almost two decades, with experience across utility operations, corporate finance and the company’s former generation business. She served as CFO of ComEd, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, then as Exelon’s CFO, guiding the company through a period of consistent operational and financial performance following the separation.
Her experience gives a perspective that crosses different parts of the energy value chain. Now she’ll be asked to apply that experience to questions that increasingly blur the line between finance and strategy: how much to invest, where to invest it and how to do so while keeping costs under control.
Exelon reported second-quarter earnings on July 30 and revenues totaled $5.97 billion, beating estimates. The top line increased 10% from the year-ago figure of $5.43 billion. Adjusted operating earnings increased 10.3% to 43 cents per share from 39 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Reflecting on her journey, Jones told me last year that her best career advice is to stay open to new experiences and not get overwhelmed by distant goals. Don’t let the pressure of a specific end goal cloud your enjoyment of the ride.
“Keep going for the next thing that’s going to develop you,” she said.
Have a good weekend.
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Fortune 500 Power Moves
Claire McDonough was appointed CFO of GE Vernova (No. 124). McDonough will join in November before transitioning fully into the CFO position on Jan. 1, 2027. She succeeds Ken Parks, who will retire on April 2, 2027. McDonough currently serves as CFO of Rivian, a position she has held since 2021. During her tenure, she guided Rivian through its initial public offering and has managed multiple complex, multi-billion-dollar initiatives—including Rivian’s joint venture with Volkswagen Group. Before joining Rivian in January 2021, McDonough served as a managing director in investment banking and co-head of the Disruptive Commerce Group at J.P. Morgan. She also held various financial leadership roles at Fairway Market and Credit Suisse.
Ash Bhumbla was appointed EVP and CFO of Hormel Foods Corporation (No. 363), effective Sept. 8. Paul Kuehneman, who has served as interim CFO since October 2025, will remain a key senior leader within the company’s finance organization. Bhumbla is an experienced finance leader. He joins Hormel Foods from Tyson Foods, where he served as SVP and CFO for the company’s chicken segment. In 2025, he concurrently served as CFO of Tyson’s international segment. Previously, he held senior finance and corporate development leadership roles at Perdue Farms and International Flavors & Fragrances. He began his career with strategy consulting firm Marakon Associates.
The weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
More notable moves this week:
Jill Pemberton was appointed CFO of RaceTrac, Inc., a convenience store chain with gas stations. Pemberton joins RaceTrac, Inc. from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where she most recently served as CFO for the company’s North America region. She succeeds Karla Ahlert, who served as RaceTrac, Inc.’s CFO from 2020, and was recently named the company’s first chief administrative officer, a new senior leadership role. Pemberton has held senior finance roles at Viacom, Johnson & Johnson, H.J. Heinz and Delta Air Lines.
Tim S. Ledwick has been named CFO of New America Acquisition I Corp. (NYSE: NWAX), special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), effective Aug. 26. He succeeds George O’Leary, who resigned as CFO the same day; the company said the departure wasn’t the result of any disagreement over operations, policies or practices. Ledwick brings more than three decades of senior finance leadership, including his current role as CFO of Dominari Holdings Inc., plus prior stints at SYFT, Dictaphone Corporation, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products and Cross Media Marketing Corp.
Ruba Minhas was promoted to CFO of The Washington Spirit, a professional women’s soccer team based in Washington, D.C. that plays in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Minhas previously served as Spirit’s VP of finance, a role in which she helped transform financial systems and processes. Before joining the Washington Spirit, Minhas spent more than a decade in senior finance roles across the sports and entertainment industry, including VP of financial planning and analysis at UBS Arena and in finance leadership positions at The Madison Square Garden Company and Broadridge Financial Solutions.
Samuel J. Poletti was promoted to CFO of Amrize (NYSE: AMRZ), effective Aug. 24. Poletti succeeds Baris Oran, who is stepping down for personal reasons. Poletti has been a member of Amrize’s executive committee as its chief strategy and M&A officer since the company’s listing on the NYSE in June 2025. He led the spin-off of Amrize to establish it as an independent company. Poletti had a more than 20-year career at Holcim in M&A, finance, and strategy.
Laurie Bergman was appointed CFO of Ecovyst Inc. (NYSE: ECVT), a chemical manufacturing company, effective Aug. 24. Bergman succeeds Michael Feehan, who will depart the company. Bergman joins Ecovyst after having previously served as the CFO of Legacy Food Group since July 2024. Before that, she served as CFO of Liquid Environmental Solutions. She also served as chief accounting officer, corporate controller and VP accounting of UGI Corporation.
Mike Bruff is stepping down as CFO of Envision, a national medical group and physician-staffing company, to pursue an opportunity in the technology industry, effective Sept. 30. Envision has formed an Office of the CFO led by president and CEO Jason Owen, with Holly Jensen, SVP and chief accounting officer, and Jeffrey O’Brien, treasurer and SVP of investor relations and risk management, to support the transition. The company is conducting a search for a permanent CFO.
Big Deal
Bank of America Institute, citing BofA Global Research, finds that although AI infrastructure buildout is one of the most visible investment waves in the U.S. economy, its scale is not yet outside historical precedent. Aggregate U.S. non-residential fixed investment currently amounts to 17.7% of GDP, slightly above its long-term average but still within the range of earlier peaks. The distinguishing factor, per the findings, is timing: AI spending began ramping up on top of business investment that was already elevated.
A Bank of America Institute analysis points out that capital is still flowing to AI, but the next phase will depend on turning spending into measurable value.
Going deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
“‘I’m in favor of taxes,’ says Nvidia’s Jensen Huang—but he doesn’t agree with Bill Gates on his plan to slow an AI fallout” —Eleanor Pringle
“Gap’s new playbook: Less discounting, more Hailey Bieber” —Phil Wahba
“Welcome to the ‘upper-middle-class trap’: why $300,000 a year doesn’t feel like winning anymore” —Nick Lichtenberg
“Grayscale CEO: Crypto winter has thawed—but market watchers are still missing the point” —Peter Mintzberg
Overheard
“Three of the world’s most powerful technology companies are now led by executives who built their careers largely from within.”
—Matthew Bidwell, Xingmei Zhang and Yongge Dai, professors at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, write in a Fortune opinion piece. The authors write: “John Ternus, who takes over as CEO of Apple this week, joined Apple in 2001, just four years after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Satya Nadella entered Microsoft in 1992, only two years after completing his master’s degree. Andy Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, 24 years before he took the top job.”
