Peter Cookson currently holds the High Performance Director (HPD) position at Rowing Canada Aviron. As an HPD he is responsible for the overall direction of the Canadian National rowing programs, with the end goal of producing World Championship and Olympic medalists.

To get to his position, Cookson has spent more than 40 years in rowing and has coached in numerous countries around the world, including South Africa for which he coached the South African sculler at the 2008 Olympic Games. He has coached for the Canadian National Team, University level rowing teams and has being heavily involved in the International Rowing Federation development program.