Frank Clark, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison Co., will retire from the company upon the closing of parent Exelon’s acquisition of Constellation Energy, the company announced Thursday.
The deal is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2012. While the company did not say Thursday who would replace Clark, it has long been thought that ComEd President and Chief Operating Officer Anne Pramaggiore is being groomed for the position.
Clark’s is the second major departure expected to come out of the $7.9 billion stock deal. Exelon CEO John Rowe announced in April that he will retire once the $7.9 billion stock deal is approved, ceding his position to Christopher Crane, chief operating officer of Exelon.
In the last year, Pramaggiore has taken center stage in Springfield, as the utility attempts to get controversial legislation signed into law that would build a sophisticated smart-grid infrastructure and alter a 100-year-old regulatory system.
Clark’s 46-year career at the company began in the mailroom in 1966. The 66-year-old was appointed the company’s first African-American chairman and CEO in 2005, after having become its first African-American president in 2001.
