Prior to this appointment, Peter held the position of Chief Executive Officer with the Victorian Major Events Company (VMEC) for a period of 8 years. Peter’s widely respected strategic and operational experience in the event industry has helped develop Melbourne’s diverse sporting and cultural event calendar as well as the city’s excellent reputation. His leading role and VMEC’s standing has been acknowledged by SportBusiness International who said ‘talk to people who know about these things and there is one city which is held up as a case study for attracting major events…Melbourne has written the book which others follow.’
Leading to his time at VMEC, Peter managed the Event Planning/Operations portfolios for Melbourne’s FORMULA 1™ Grand Prix and MotoGP. During this period, he established many of the ‘operational’ benchmark standards used in event management Australia-wide. This emphasis on world’s best standards was in part responsible for Melbourne twice being voted the best Grand Prix by the FIA.
From 1997 up until, and during, the highly acclaimed Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Peter provided strategic advice and facilitated a transfer of knowledge program between the Grand Prix, the Olympic Transport Authority (ORTA) and Olympic Co-ordination Authority (OCA).
Born and educated in Melbourne, Peter was trained and initially practiced in Landscape and Urban Design. In 1999 he was offered a Leadership Victoria Fellowship and he also serves on the City’s Sport Advisory Board. In 2002, Peter was appointed non-executive Director of Laiki Bank (Aust.) whilst in 2006 Peter served as ‘Team Attaché’ for Cyprus at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and in that same year was a finalist for the Sport Executive of the Year at the Australian Sports Awards.
Peter is married to Penelope and has two daughters.
Prior to starting these companies in 2000, he was the General Manager of Teledyne Energy Systems (MD), a=2 0division of Teledyne Technologies Inc (MD); and prior to joining Teledyne he was the Business Leader of W.L. Gore’s Ion Transport Products unit, which he founded based on patents for products he co-invented for Fuel Cells and other Electrochemical devices. He has been an active member of the International Hydrogen Energy Association since 1982.
He has a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Queen Mary College (1985), London University and an M.S. from Columbia University (New York, 1990). He was brought up internationally with parents that worked for Iran’s foreign services with assignments in Brazil, Poland, Turkey, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. He is fluent in English, Farsi, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
He is also a musician, painter and writer. He has recorded several music albums and written several plays. He was the lead singer of a band called “Mother Hen” that won the British Schools Band Competition in 1981.
He is a USSF certified soccer coach and referee (booked through CASRA).
The Chicago children worked with noted educational anthropologist, Dr. Aisha Ray of Erikson Institute, to learn "ethnographic methods," including interviewing. In addition to communication through the Internet, the children of these two communities studied each other's cultures and produced videos and performances that integrated their cultural differences and similarities. The Portobelo children worked with noted professor and artist Arturo Lindsay and noted photographer Sandra Eleta to create their photo documentaries and performances about Congo culture and Carnaval, in collaboration with Taller Portobelo and Spelman College Summer Art Colony.
In 2002, UAP began to expand its forms of communicating by bringing in interns from high schools and colleges including Columbia College Chicago, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Wellesley College, New York University (NYU) and Stanford University. The kids were now using their photographs to create digital storytelling pieces using digital animation, short films and found-object sculpture.
UAP was one of the first and only programs to create an intercultural dialogue among youth through photography and digital storytelling. They provide their program participants with high quality equipment (video cameras, laptops, etc.) to give voice to their personal experience and way of life. UAP has connected children in classrooms and after school programs at Chicago Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the Urban League of Broward County in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and others with kids in Israel, Latin America, Jamaica, Japan and Germany to exchange cultural practices.
The program was founded by ethnographic photographer, Nahlyee Van Brunt[http://www.gapersblock.com/merge/archives/2003/08/#011046] and was initially housed at, and fiscally sponsored by, CYCLE Wiz Factory of Learning in Chicago, IL until late 2003 when the organization relocated to Los Angeles to become a Supplemental Educational Services (SES) provider. They created UAP Learning to focus specifically on SES and services learning programming and partnered with Apple Computer, Inc. to provide Apple® products to their U.S. program participants, partnering non-profits and supporters as an Apple Authorized Business Agent.
The Urban Anthropology Project is funded by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations including the Illinois Humanities Council and Polk Bros. Foundation, according to Catalyst Chicago[http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/guides/?id=81#polk2], an independent newsmagazine created in 1990 to document, analyze and support school-improvement efforts in the Chicago Public Schools.
In 2003, the UAP kids from Cabrini-Green met the late Katherine Dunham in East St. Louis and attend a professional dance and music institute based on her groundbreaking dance anthropology technique. The event was sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council, according to their website.