In 1994, while completing his doctorate in economics, he formed an investment vehicle which became the forerunner to Cannon Asset Managers. With a professorship in economics, Adrian was able to combine the two complementary activities of academia and investment management. As he says: “these disciplines feed and fuel each other richly and powerfully”. Adrian’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (cum laude) degree and M.Com (cum laude) from the University of Natal. He completed his PhD (Economics) at the University of Natal in 1997, for which he was awarded the Economics Society of South Africa’s Founders Medal.
He is a UNESCO laureate and a matriculant of Linacre College (Oxford). He has completed programmes in value investing and competitive strategy at New York’s Columbia University and Harvard Business School in Boston. Adrian has successfully combined teaching and business, having lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Pretoria, London School of Business, Kelley School of Business, Rotterdam School of Management and the Estonian Business School. He has held a Professorship of Economics, Finance & Strategy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) since 2003, where he teaches in the fields of macroeconomics, investment finance and strategy. He has received the Excellence in Teaching Award at GIBS on ten occasions since 2007.
In 2012 he was nominated for the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Business Professor of the Year Award and in 2014 he received the Central and East European Management Development Association award in teaching excellence. Adrian’s successful career has encompassed consulting widely to government and corporate business, including serving as an economic consultant to Visa South Africa. He has presented to global audiences in many countries, including Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore, UK, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He has published broadly in peer-reviewed journals and books, and is a member of the Investment Analysts Society and Economics Society of South Africa. BOOK NOW!
