Peter Mitchell

Peter was born and grew up in Melbourne, where after lengthy absences he currently lives. 

After he qualified as a lawyer he moved to London where he lived for 5 years. While a partner with one of Australia's largest law firms, he moved to Singapore with his family in 2000 where he lived for 20 years. Early on there, he left the law to run a regional non-profit organisation. His company ran professional training programmes in India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and he also spent time in Thailand and Indonesia. His company also established a benchmark index for listed stocks in Asia, published guidelines on best practice operating standards and corporate governance and, with universities in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, it published extensive research. In this role, Peter was a regular presenter at conferences throughout Asia and North America and was a regular guest on Bloomberg Asia, ChannelNewsAsia and other Asian television business programmes.  

 

While he lived in Singapore he travelled around Asia frequently. He visited the Myanmar end of the Burma Thailand railway (this is very hard to get to, especially now) and he used his father’s memoirs as a basis to explore. He has also been to the Thailand end of the railway a number of times. At the Myanmar end he spoke to many local people  and the railway was a vivid memory, even then. Some spoke of still hearing howls in the jungle at night. He went to the  Thanbyuzayat Allied War Cemetery and saw the graves of many of his father’s friends. It was a very special moment. It is a beautiful area, peaceful and well tended. Most years in Singapore he and his family attended the Anzac Day dawn service at Kranji. It was always very moving; the first time, walking up the rise in the  fresh warm air of pre-dawn past the rows of gravestones, a lone piper playing at the crest, it was particulary poignant. Peter has travelled widely in Malaysia and has seen many of the WW2 sites in both Malaysia and Singapore.  

 

Peter loves travel, reading and music. He has a large library and extensive music collection. He also loves history, particularly military, political and European history. He is a poor cello player but hoping to get better. Now that he is back in Melbourne, he is making up for lost time and enjoys going to performances of all kinds (the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Opera, Memo Music Hall and blues and jazz concerts) and to movies. And he is an AFL tragic, blighted with following one of the less successful clubs. But then a win means so much more.