Alexander M. Cutler

Alexander M. Cutler retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Eaton, a global $20.9 billion diversified industrial manufacturer, in May 2016. Mr. Cutler assumed the position in August 2000, after serving as Eaton’s president and chief operating officer since 1995.

He began his career with Cutler-Hammer in 1975 as a financial analyst, and became Business Group Controller in 1977. After Eaton acquired Cutler-Hammer, he was made a division controller in 1979, and in 1980, was appointed Plant Manager of the Atlanta Assembly Plant.

In 1982, Mr. Cutler became Division Manager of the Power Distribution Division, and in April 1985, was appointed General Manager of the Industrial Control and Power Distribution Operations in the United States. In 1986, he was elected President of the Industrial Group, and in 1989, was promoted to President of Eaton's Controls Group. He was elected Executive Vice President – Operations in 1991 and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer – Controls in 1993 before assuming the position of Easton’s President and Chief Operating Officer in 1995.

Mr. Cutler is a board member of E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, United Way of Greater Cleveland, and the Musical Arts Association. Cutler is also a member of the Yale Development Board and the Yale Alumni Association of Cleveland.

Previously, he served as the first chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, one of the nation’s largest metropolitan chambers of commerce. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee, he also chaired the Corporate Governance Committee of the Business Roundtable and was a member of The Business Council. He served as president of the Yale Alumni Association of Cleveland, and was a member of the board of the Yale University Alumni Fund, the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, Loomis Chaffee School, and the Electrical Manufacturers Club. Mr. Cutler also served on the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (formerly the Cleveland Commission on Higher Education), the Cleveland Play House, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, the Museum of Natural History, and he chaired the Visiting Committee of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He is a past chairman of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and Greater Cleveland’s United Way Services. He is also the co-founder and past co-chairman of the Commission on Economic Inclusion.

Mr. Cutler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He received his bachelor of arts from Yale University and a master of business administration from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.