Alexander M. Cutler is chairman and chief executive officer of Eaton Corporation, a global diversified industrial manufacturer. Cutler assumed his current position in August 2000, after serving as Eaton’s president and chief operating officer since 1995.

Cutler 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, he became division manager of the Power Distribution Division, and in April 1985, was appointed general manager of 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 Eaton’s president and chief
operating officer.

Cutler is a board member of DuPont, KeyCorp, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Electrical Manufacturers Club and the Musical Arts Association. 

Previously, he served as chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the United Way of Greater Cleveland and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. He has also served as president of the Yale Alumni Association of Cleveland.

He is a past member of the board of the Yale University Alumni Fund, the Yale University Development Board, the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and the Loomis Chaffee School.

Cutler also served on the executive committees of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (formerly the Cleveland Commission on Higher Education), the Visiting Committee of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Play House, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and the Museum of Natural History. He is a past co-chairman of the Cleveland Commission on Economic Partnerships and Inclusion.

Cutler was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on May 28, 1951, and attended the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.