Ellen T. Ruff President — Duke Energy Carolinas

Ellen Ruff, President — Duke Energy Carolinas

Ellen Ruff is president of Duke Energy Carolinas. She leads Duke Energy’s utility business in North Carolina and South Carolina, providing electricity and value-added products and services to more than 2.3 million customers in a 24,000-square-mile service area. Duke Energy’s diverse mix of generating resources in the Carolinas include three nuclear stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31 hydroelectric stations and numerous combustion turbine units with a generating capability of nearly 21,000 megawatts.

Most recently, Ruff served as group vice president of planning and external relations for Duke Power. She led Duke Power’s strategic planning, compliance, environmental health and safety, and external relations strategy efforts. She was also accountable for establishing and maintaining relationships with key regulators at the state and federal level.

Ruff joined Duke Power in 1978 as an attorney in the legal department. She was named vice president and general counsel of electric operations following the creation of Duke Energy in 1997; vice president and general counsel of corporate, gas and electric operations in January 1999; senior vice president and general counsel for Duke Energy in February 2001; and senior vice president of asset management for Duke Power in August 2001. She was named senior vice president of power policy and planning in February 2003, and group vice president of power policy and planning in March 2004. She was named group vice president of planning and external relations in March 2005. She was named to her current position in April 2006.

A native of Hartford, Conn., Ruff graduated from Simmons College with a bachelor of arts degree in business, and earned a juris doctor degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ruff is involved in a number of community and professional activities. She serves on the board of directors and the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Chamber. In 2006, she was appointed by N.C. Governor Mike Easley to serve a three-year term on the North Carolina Economic Development Board. Ruff is a board member of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance and a member of the Palmetto Business Forum. She is a member of the board of directors of the United Way of Central Carolinas and serves as chair of the organization’s 2008 regional campaign. She also serves on the board of Aqua America, Inc., a publicly traded water company.

Ruff was born in 1948. She and her husband, Tom, have a daughter and two sons.

Duke Energy, one of the largest power companies in the United States, supplies and delivers electricity to approximately 3.9 million customers in the Carolinas and the Midwest. The company also distributes natural gas in Ohio and Kentucky, generates electricity in Latin America, and is a joint-venture partner in a U.S. real estate company. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK.

April 18, 2008