Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Dr. John Rickard is an economist, and Chair of Higher Education Governing Council of Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. Previously, he has been Vice Chancellor at Central Queensland University and the University of Southern Queensland, Dean at Monash University, Director of the Graduate School of Management at Deakin University and Foundation Professor (Financial Economics) at the University of Melbourne. The author of three books and 81 articles, Professor Rickard has been and advisor to the governments of Victoria and Queensland on education and financial matters. John Rickard was born in Birmingham. He read Mathematics at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, where he was awarded a BSc (1st Class Honours) in 1966. He completed his studies at University College, London. His Thesis was a study of "Planetary Waves." John and his wife Veronica first arrived in Australia aboard the Angelina Lauro in Fremantle in 1966 and first settled in Bulleen, Victoria, where John took up a lectureship in Mathematics.