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photography by getty images (comed station) Work-Life BaLance ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore shares her strategies. what I'm readIng: "I tend to read several books at the same time. Right now it's Thieves' Road by Terry Mort, about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I'm fascinated with Native American history. I'm also reading The Generals by Thomas Ricks, a leader- ship book by a military correspondent that chronicles the army from WWII to today." local faves: "I love the Modern Wing at the Art Institute. If you hit it at the right time, it can be a quiet place. I also love Hearts & Flour Bakery at Misericordia [a Catholic developmental home for the disabled]." breakneck speed: "I'm a big animal lover. When you're riding a 1,200-pound horse that can go 35 mph, you must be completely present. It's great for when you have an intense job and need to get away from it." woman who, in addition to steering ComEd, sits on the board of several civic and community organiza- tions (including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Art Institute, and the Lincoln Park Zoo); is involved in charitable outreach; and still finds oppor- tunities for horseback riding in her off time. The Ohio-born Pramaggiore took an unorthodox path to her position as CEO, studying theater and communications at Miami University and spending several years in retail in Louisville, Kentucky, before earning her law degree at DePaul University in 1989 and joining a firm where she specialized in antitrust law. On a recent panel of female executives, Pramaggiore mused that her circuitous route set her up for success. "The conclusion we came to is that jumping around forced [me] to become a quick study, and that's a really useful skill set," she says. "What I look for in employees is the ability to learn." Pramaggiore came to ComEd as an attorney in 1998 and spent the next 14 years moving up the chain of command, first tackling regulatory, strategic, and external affairs and eventually becoming president and COO in 2009. "A lawyer's job is interesting because it's cerebral: You're focused on ideas and principles," she says, explaining that her leap to oper- ations took her from personally interacting with a few hundred colleagues to managing a group of thou- sands. "It requires you to think about management and leadership very differently and the importance of developing a culture. You have to create a value system and a culture that people buy into because you can't watch what everyone's doing all the time." In 2012, she was instated as CEO, which made her the first female president and chief executive of the Exelon subsidiary. "On a personal level, I think it's an advantage," she muses. "I'm different. When people see somebody different, they expect you to act differ- ently. So it's easier when you're asking for change." Two things make Pramaggiore tick as a leader: safety and innovation—both of which hinge on her unf lagging support of her employees. "If we got [safety] right, it was a barometer that would mean people were working with excellence, quality, and respect." It also gives employees the freedom to experiment. Since she took over, workers have designed their own app to facilitate meter reading and a hybrid splicing van that produces less carbon while powering work inside manholes. But Pramaggiore's biggest challenge is still ahead. As our wired world goes wireless, ComEd has been hindered by a book of ancient policies. "The regula- tory compact was 100 years old and starting to wear pretty thin," she says. Pramaggiore is poised to usher in the dawn of the smart grid: a system that can be monitored and adjusted according to customers' needs; a system with LED street lights that can direct first responders to emergency events; a system that can generate power around critical infrastructure like hospitals, water pumps, and police stations in black- out scenarios. It is, she hopes, the next step in powering Chicagoans' lives in the 21st century. MA clockwise from left: Pramaggiore attends a Women Employed luncheon; an exterior view of ComEd's Northern Public Service station on North California Avenue, circa 1931; participants in ComEd's Ice Box Derby, a program to encourage young women to explore careers in the STEM fields, explain their project to Pramaggiore. 66 michiganavemag.com PEOPLE View from the Top