I am Professor of Public Management Emeritus at the University of Toronto, having retired in July 2020. I remain professionally active in a number of ways. With co-author Beth Herst, our book Public Representations: Screen Stories, Narrative, and the Public Sphere was published in April 2026. I continue to teach a course on narrative and management at the University of Toronto. I post a weekly blog about politics, narrative, and my personal life. I serve as chair of the independent review committees for a mutual fund company, and I am a member of the Board of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (an academic organization of which I once served as President).

Looking back on a lengthy academic career, I take considerable satisfaction in my achievements, which include twelve books and eighty articles or book chapters; a Google Scholar count approaching 7000; a strong teaching record, particularly in my last 10 years; and service as the founding chair of the Department of Management at the University of Toronto at Scarborough. In recognition of these achievements, I received the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

The two passions I have pursued in my research are narrative and public sector innovation. My books about narrative include Public Representations: Screen Stories, Narrative, and the Public Sphere (University of Toronto Press, 2026), Negotiating Business Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives (Emerald Publishing, 2011), all co-authored with Beth Herst. My books about public sector innovation include The Persistence of Innovation in Government (Brookings, 2014) and Innovating with Integrity: How Local Heroes are Transforming American Government  (Georgetown University Press, 1998).

I have had a wide range of professional experience. I was a member of the board of directors of the Ontario Transportation Capital Corporation, responsible for developing Highway 407, Ontario’s electronic toll road (1995-98) and I was the President of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) from 2003 to 2007. I gave frequent presentations at conferences or to practitioner groups in Canada, the US, the UK, Brazil, Norway, Taiwan, Peru, Australia, Mexico, Denmark, and at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

I did my undergraduate studies at Harvard, where I graduated magna cum laude, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. I then took a master’s degree in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and received my Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard.