Our People

Ontario. Derek began his teaching career in England, before moving to Alberta, where he was a school principal. After completing his graduate work at the University of Alberta, he accepted a position with the faculty of education at the University of Western Ontario. Where he taught social and legal foundations of education for 36 years, and skillfully guided hundreds of graduate students through advanced research and study. He gained acclaim for his teaching, especially his outstanding lectures, and his skill as a mentor and advisor to graduate students. He has an extensive record in research and publication with particular interests in the organization and operation of schools, theories of leadership, and the philosophy of inquiry. He is the recipient of 10 teaching awards and the Distinguished Service Award of the Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration.

B.Comm. from the University of British Columbia (1974). In 1994, Mr Cowley independently wrote and published The Parent's Guide, a popular handbook for parents of British Columbia's secondary-school students. The Parent's Guide web site replaced the handbook in 1995. In 1998, Mr Cowley was co-author of the Fraser Institute's A Secondary Schools Report Card for British Columbia, the first of the Institute's continuing series of annual reports on school performance. This was followed in by The 1999 Report Card on British Columbia's Secondary Schools, Boys, Girls, and Grades: Academic Gender Balance in British Columbia's Secondary Schools, and The 1999 Report Card on Alberta's High Schools. Since then, Mr Cowley has co-authored all of the Institute's annual Report Cards. Annual editions now include Report Cards on elementary and secondary schools in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario and on secondary schools in Quebec.

monthly assessment of the economy for years, as well as many feature articles for the Canadian Economic Observer. After leaving Statistics Canada, he worked for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He has been widely-quoted over the years, and now writes a bi-weekly column for the National Post and other papers.

as a Visiting Professor of Finance at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK.  Previously, he was a Professor and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Professor Cumming received his BA in economics and finance from McGill University, his masters from Queen’s University and PhDs in both economics and finance as well as law from the University of Toronto. Professor Cumming is also a Certified Financial Analyst.He has published over 185 articles in leading refereed academic journals in finance, management, and law and economics, and his work has been cited over 17,000 times according to Google Scholar. His is the Founding Managing Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Corporate Finance (2021-), the Managing Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Management (2020-2022) and the Journal of Corporate Finance (2018-2020). Professor Cumming has written 18 academic books covering a host of financial and regulatory issues.