Derek Burney is the former president of

Corel Corporation Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo (pronounced like "all you do"), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation ...

. In 1988, at the age of 26, Burney entered the Computer Science program at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

, spending co-op terms at

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...

and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (

AECL Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this ...

). He began his career with Corel as a developer and, with the help of his mentor

Michael Cowpland Michael Cowpland (born April 23, 1943 in Bexhill-on-Sea) is a British-born entrepreneur, businessman, and the founder and one-time president, chairman and CEO of Corel, a Canadian software company. Career Mitel Cowpland worked for Bell Northern ...

, rose quickly through the ranks, eventually heading the engineering department and becoming

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

Chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

following Cowpland's resignation in 2000. After taking the company private with Vector Capital, Burney held the position of

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

until he resigned to join

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

in 2004. Burney is currently corporate vice president of Customer Technical Engagement in Microsoft's Worldwide Commercial Business. Burney's father,

Derek Burney Derek Hudson Burney, OC (born 1939) for a time served as Canada's ambassador to the US, and was political strategist for both the government of Brian Mulroney and of Stephen Harper. He was for a time an executive or director in private industry ...

Sr., is a noted

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

businessperson and diplomat.

References

External links

Carleton University alumni profile from 2001
Canadian businesspeople Carleton University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Corel Nortel people {{Canada-business-bio-stub, Burney, Derek Jr.