Richard R. Drouin, is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 lawyer and businessman.

Born in Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

, he studied at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf

Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf

Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is a private French-language educational institution offering secondary school and CEGEP college-level instruction in Montreal, Quebec. It is a co-ed establishment for students in their final year of secondary school and in college. It is boys-only in the first four years...

 in Montreal and studied law at the Université Laval

Université Laval

Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...

. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1957 and was created a Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

 in 1972. A practicing lawyer, he is a partner with McCarthy Tétrault

McCarthy Tétrault

McCarthy Tétrault LLP is a law firm with offices in Canada’s major commercial centres and in London, UK. It provides business law, litigation, tax, real estate, and labour and employment law services....

. From 1988 to 1995, he was the Chairman and CEO of Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec

Hydro-Québec is a government-owned public utility established in 1944 by the Government of Quebec. Based in Montreal, the company is in charge of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across Quebec....

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In 1995, he was appointed to the Board of Directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 of Abitibi-Consolidated

Abitibi-Consolidated

Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp...

 Inc. and was Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2006. He is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation.

In 2004, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec

National Order of Quebec

The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as l'Ordre national du Québec, and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec...

. In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 and was promoted to Companion in 2006. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society

Royal Canadian Geographical Society

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to imparting a broader knowledge and deeper appreciation of Canada — its people and places, its natural and cultural heritage and its environmental, social and economic challenges.-History:The...

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