Derek Ferguson is a results-oriented communications strategist and political analyst with more than a decade as a leader in the federal public service following a significant career as a resourceful national political journalist. He has had extensive dealings with the country’s political, government and business elites and possesses an intimate knowledge of the workings of Parliament Hill and the Ontario Legislature.Most recently, Derek was the Director of Public Affairs for Export Development Canada (EDC), a government-owned Crown corporation mandated as Canada's export credit agency, where he provided strategic leadership in the development and management of every facet of EDC’s communications.Prior to that, he was the General Director of the National Liberal Caucus Research Bureau (LRB), overseeing the development of all policy and strategic communications for the caucus of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), including the daily strategy of the Official Opposition for Question Period in the House of Commons.As a journalist, Derek spent almost 15 years in a variety of national capacities with the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. He served as Prairie Bureau Chief, and was a prominent journalist at both Queen’s Park and in Ottawa, where he specialized in financial and investigative reporting.Derek attended the University of Saskatchewan where he received a Bachelor of Arts Honours in History and a Masters of Arts in History (with dissertation). He was the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships, including a federal teaching fellowship and an international scholarship to study American history and politics at California’s Claremont Institute for Journalists and Academics.