Jack Thayer began a hiatus from dealmaking in 2003, leaving his job as a healthcare investment banker at Deutsche Bank AG to join Baltimore utility Constellation Energy Group Inc. as its investor relations chief. He was following his former boss at Deutsche, Mayo Shattuck, who became Constellation's CEO in 2001.

Now Thayer is returning to deals as Constellation's managing director for corporate strategy and development. He succeeds Mark Huston, who was promoted to an operating job at Constellation's biggest unit, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., and reports to Tom Brady, executive vice president of corporate strategy and retail competitive supply. He says his mandate is simple: "We want to go out and originate transactions as well as look for opportunities to monetize assets to get good returns."

Constellation isn't alone among utilities returning to the marketplace looking for acquisitions, following the private equity firms that have flocked to the industry. The utility has already bought a few assets, including the RE Ginna nuclear power plant from Energy East Corp. unit Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. this past June for $442.6 million. "The industry has not deployed capital very well," he says. "What you're seeing is a measured pace and greater discipline. And we're in a unique point in the cycle, with low interest rates."

The 33-year-old Thayer, who hails from St. Louis (please don't bring up the Cardinals' World Series defeat), earned a bachelor's degree in history from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

"We look at pretty much everything," he says. "But there are so many hurdles you have to get through to get a transaction done, it's not something you entertain lightly. If the stars are aligned and you can get through the social, regulatory and federal issues, we will entertain it." - Claire Poole

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