These are interesting times for the energy sector. After remaining flat for years, demand for power is soaring due to AI’s relentless hunger for energy. At the same time, the grid is aging, and natural disasters accelerated by climate change threaten its reliability. Nuclear plants, regarded with distrust by some, are seeing renewed corporate interest as a source of energy.
As CFO of Fortune 200 energy company Exelon, Jeanne Jones must navigate all these trends and more. The Chicago-based company has more than 10 million customers and employs around 20,000 people. Its six subsidiaries transmit and distribute electricity and gas across five states and Washington, DC.
From CPA to CFO: Jones began her career as an accountant with EY, and started her Exelon career in the controller’s department. Her accounting background was invaluable, she told CFO Brew. “Accounting isn’t always the most glamorous part,” she said, “but it’s so fundamental, knowing how any transaction flows through our financial statements…That foundation,” she said, makes it easier for her to “think about different strategies and how they might impact our financial goals, and our ability to hit those goals. I still leverage it all the time.” Plus, she added, “It makes me a lot more comfortable signing those financial statements.”
Earlier in her career, Jones focused on taking roles that she would enjoy and that would develop her skills in different areas.
“What I tell people is, be open to different experiences that are going to develop you,” she said. Think about choosing roles that will “help you continue to develop some skill set that maybe you don’t have yet,” she said, whether that be leadership, FP&A, or treasury.
Jones purposefully sought opportunities that would help her fill her skill and functional “gaps,” she said. For instance, she had spent her entire time at Exelon on the corporate side, so she advocated for a role that would take her “out in the business,” and became VP of finance for Exelon Nuclear. “That was me kind of zoning in and saying, ‘If I want to be an executive, that’s a piece that will make me more competitive.”
Meeting data center demands: Jones became CFO in 2022, just months before ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. In the years that followed, AI has driven massive demand for energy. According to McKinsey, data centers represented 5.2% of US energy consumption in 2025, and could be responsible for 11.7% by 2030. Exelon foresees 16 gigawatts’ worth of “high-certainty data centers” being built in its territories, on top of the around 170 data centers it already serves, Jones said.
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To help meet this demand, Exelon plans to outlay $38 billion in capital over the next four years, plus $10 billion–$15 billion more to improve transmissions.
“What we’re doing is making sure the grid is ready through our investments to accommodate that new load,” Jones said. It’s also critical for the company to “maintain that reputation of reliability,” she said, something data centers value so that they can run 24/7.
From atoms to microchips: To be able to deliver more energy, though, Exelon needs to work closely with state governments and with the generation companies that produce the power it transmits. Jones’ work has often involved negotiating with both these parties. A case in point was when she worked with the states of Illinois, New York, and New Jersey to pass legislation that would subsidize nuclear power plants through zero-emissions credits.
“Back in 2016, we had several plants that were at risk of shutting down,” Jones said. (The plants were operated by Constellation, a former subsidiary of Exelon that spun off from the corporation in 2022.) Plant employees were worried about losing their jobs. And if the plants were shut down, they couldn’t be readily reopened. “Once you shut down a nuclear plant, it’s almost impossible to restart it, because it’s so expensive,” Jones said.
But though the plants were struggling economically, they still played a role in the emerging green energy space.
“We knew that [the plants] had long-term value, and we were right,” Jones said. “You look at where they are today, and they’re needed.”
Jones looks back on the passage of the legislation as one of her key career accomplishments. “Leading the team culturally through that, but also leading the financial analysis and getting that legislation passed was a very proud moment,” Jones said, “and one that I’ll always be grateful to have been a part of.”