Michael Parent, PhD, ICD.D
National Academic Director and Lead Instructor
Dr. Michael Parent is a recognized expert on Corporate Governance in Canada, with a focus on cybersecurity and IT governance. He is also co-founder of the ICD’s Board Oversight of Technology Program (which has since evolved into Digital Transformation from the Boardroom and DIT and Oversight of Cybersecurity in an era of Digital Acceleration) and currently the Academic Director for the Vancouver cohort of the ICD-Rotman Directors’ Education Programs. He has been an academic for over 25 years and is currently a Professor at the Segal Graduate School, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Prior to joining SFU, he was an Assistant Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business, Western University. Michael is an active executive educator, and has taught programs for the federal and provincial governments in Canada, Crown Corporations, as well as a number of public and private, for-profit and non-profit organizations. Before becoming an academic, he spent over a decade in the high technology industry in IT, new product development and marketing.
From 2015-2017 he was a Professor and Vice-Dean at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. He also held appointment as a Senior Special Advisor to the Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada, Government of Canada, in 2018-2019.
Michael holds a MBA and PhD degrees from Queen’s University, and qualified for the Institute of Corporate Directors’ ICD.D designation. His current research centres on governance practices at the Board, cybersecurity, IT governance, and luxury brands. He has published extensively in leading practitioner and academic journals. Michael has also written over 50 teaching case studies and coauthored three books.
Michael is an active executive educator, and has taught programs for the federal and provincial governments in Canada, Crown Corporations, as well as a number of public and private, for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
He is the Academic Director for the Vancouver cohort of the Directors’ Education Programs for Canada’s Institute of Corporate Directors, co-Academic Director for the Montréal cohort, Founding Academic Director of the Ottawa cohort, and teaches the IT and Cybersecurity Risk module nationally.