Do you know of a utility that will convert whole folder of DWG files to JPEG images? Any other raster file format will do as well - TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP.

I wouldn't use a separate utility - there is always the problem of trustworthy rendering of the DWG file contents if you are using a non-Autodesk tool.
 
AutoCAD alone can perform this conversion - just "plot" to a "raster printer". You can also use the Publish function to process multiple drawings or layouts.
 
See the tip:
How to export an AutoCAD drawing to a hi-res raster file (eg. TIFF)?