Powering the Future: Reimagining the Grid for Tomorrow
Join Exelon leaders Sunny Elebua, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, and Jeanne Jones '01, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer for a discussion how leaders in the energy industry are looking to innovation to stay ahead of future threats to energy transmission and distribution to their millions of customers across the country.
Experience the Episode
Friday, February 14, 2025 12:00 pm
What will the process of creation and renewal look like by 2035? How will we leverage innovation to meet the challenges of the future in areas from our power grid and collaborative intelligence to community health and resilience building? Explore questions, ideas, and trends likely to affect business and society over the next decade. Let these ideas serve as a springboard for structured speculation about emerging issues and the next ten years.
Join Exelon leaders Sunny Elebua, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, and Jeanne Jones ’01, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer for a discussion how leaders in the energy industry are looking to innovation to stay ahead of future threats to energy transmission and distribution to their millions of customers across the country.
Meet the Faculty: James S. O'Rourke '68
James S. O’Rourke ’68 is an American rhetorician who teaches management and corporate communication, as well as business writing and speaking, at the University of Notre Dame. He is a Teaching Professor of Management and, from 1990 to 2017 was the Arthur F. and Mary J. O’Neil Director of the Fanning Center for Business Communication. He earned a BBA in Management from Notre Dame, an MS in Mass Communication from Temple University, an MA in Speech Communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Public Communication from Syracuse University. He is the author of 23 prominent textbooks, including Management Communication, 6/e Routledge (Abingdon, Oxfordshire) and The Truth About Confident Presenting, 2/e Anthem Press (London). He is principal author or directing editor of more than 375 case studies in management and corporate communication. O’Rourke is a former trustee of both the Arthur W. Page Society and the Institute for Public Relations. He is also a member of the Management Communication Association, and a regular consultant to Fortune 500 and mid-size businesses throughout North America. During Spring 2018, he served as faculty-in-residence in Notre Dame’s M.K. Fischer Hall in London.
Meet the Speaker: Sunny Elebua
Sunny Elebua serves as senior vice president and Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer at Exelon, where he is responsible for the development of an integrated strategy that addresses jurisdictional trends across their operating companies, coupling Exelon’s growth with the needs of their customers, regulators and communities. In this role, he is also responsible for the development of Exelon’s sustainability strategy, including the Path to Clean, and leads Exelon’s efforts to evaluate and advance the technology, policy and regulatory transformations required to achieve a net-zero GHG goal by 2050.
Elebua also oversees technology and innovation functions across Exelon, leading the Technology Exchange and Partnership R&D programs to evaluate and invest in technologies that have the potential to be transformative over time.
Elebua was named to his current role in November 2021 after assuming responsibility for the company’s Sustainability efforts in August 2021. Prior to his current role, he served as vice president, Corporate Strategy & Technology from 2016 until 2021, and as a director from 2013 until 2016. Elebua began his career with Exelon in 2008 in the Corporate Development organization, where he was responsible for evaluating and executing potential M&A transactions, playing a significant role in the acquisition of Exelon’s renewables platform and the merger with Constellation Energy.
Prior to joining Exelon, Elebua was an investment banking associate with Wachovia Securities (Wells Fargo), where he covered the Energy & Power sector. He started his career at Arthur Andersen in the Assurance and Business Advisory Practice. Elebua holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nigeria and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Meet the Speaker: Jeanne Jones '01
Jeanne Jones ’01 is Exelon’s chief financial officer. Exelon is a Fortune 200 company and the nation’s largest energy delivery company, serving more than 10.5 million customers through six fully regulated transmission and distribution utilities. She is responsible for overseeing the execution of all financial activities including the capital investment process, financial reporting, planning, tax, insurance, credit management, investor relations, investments and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Jones serves on the Exelon Executive Committee, which sets strategy and direction for the company.
Previously, Jones served as senior vice president, corporate finance for Exelon, where she was the key interface between Exelon and the financial community, including investors and rating agencies, and was responsible for communicating the company’s financial, strategic, operation and regulatory goals and results.
Prior to her role at Exelon, Jones served as chief financial officer for ComEd, where she was responsible for all ComEd finance activities, including financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, business planning, financings, and risk management. A unit of Chicago-based Exelon, ComEd delivers electricity to more than four million residential and business customers across northern Illinois, or about 70 percent of the state’s population.
Before joining ComEd, Jones served as vice president of finance for Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Exelon’s power generation company. In that role, she led a team responsible for the financial, planning, and analysis for all of the company’s nuclear operations, including developing and reporting performance against budget and the company’s long-range plan, as well as economic analysis related to optimizing the value of Exelon’s nuclear fleet. Jones concurrently served as CFO of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC. Before that, she served as director of finance for Exelon Nuclear.
Prior to her role in Exelon Nuclear, Jones served as assistant treasurer and director of treasury operations and cash management at Exelon. Before that, Jones held a variety of finance roles at Exelon, including manager of treasury operations and chief of staff to the CFO. She joined Exelon in 2007 as a principal analyst for accounting, policy, and research in the controller’s department.
Jones serves on the Board of Directors for Energy Insurance Mutual Limited (EIM) and is also a member of the Exelon Foundation Board of Directors. Jones serves on Board of Directors and Audit Committee of the Big Shoulders Fund, supporting Chicago’s children in need through access to a quality, values-based education.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.