Eleanor Ruth Clitheroe is a Canadian cleric and former businesswoman.
Education
In 1978 she earned her Master of Laws from McGill University, and earned her Master of Business Administration from UWO in 1980. In 2005, she obtained a Master of Divinity, from Wycliffe College. Clitheroe is a candidate for a Doctor of Philosophy in Theology at University of Toronto.
Career
She was president and Chief Executive Officer of Hydro One, a successor company to Ontario Hydro owned by the Province of Ontario. Born in Montreal in 1954, Clitheroe earned her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in 1977. She articled at the Tory, Tory DesLauriers & Binnington law firm in Toronto, and worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
She was Ontario"s deputy minister of finance under the New Democratic Party of Bob Rae from 1990 to 1993.
She was then appointed a vice-president of Ontario Hydro. When it was reorganized into five companies, she was appointed president and Chief Executive Officer of Hydro One, where she received a $2.2 million annual salary.
From 2000 until 2004 she was chancellor of the University of Western Ontario. She has been the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Canada, leaving the position in 2013, and Padre to the Governor General Horse Guards.
In 2002, she was named Business Woman of the Year by the National Post.
Clitheroe filed a lawsuit against the utility for her severance and pension compensation after legislation was passed by the Progressive Conservative government. This lawsuit was dismissed saying of the government, " In short, the Legislature within its jurisdiction can do everything that is not naturally impossible, and is restrained by no rule human or divine….The prohibition "Thou shalt not steal," has no legal force upon the sovereign body. And there would be no necessity for compensation to be given.".