Born in country Victoria, Peter took a commerce degree at the University of Melbourne and then went to work at Ford Australia in their graduate program. Whilst there he met John Egan, last year’s Honour Roll inductee.
In 1969 Peter left Ford and joined Rose Music to become Marketing Services Manager and later Marketing Manager. Three years later he left Rose Music he started his own business, as a retailer: Hayward Organ Studios in Dandenong, in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. Two years later the business had a manager and Peter had opened Australis Instruments, a wholesale company.
Two years later he was approached to be the first managing director of Roland Australia. His old friend John Egan stepped in to run Australis and Peter moved to Sydney to take up the job of establishing Roland in Australia.
Two years after that John and Peter swapped jobs. John took up the role at Roland and Peter returned to running his beloved Australis. That was 1978 and Peter ran Australis for more than 30 years. In that time he built Australis into a major wholesaler based on long term relationships with brands like Ibanez Tama and others. Always keeping an eye on changes in the marketplace, more recently Peter decided it was time the company established its own brand and he steered the company to build a major new line, Ashton, through a long term relationship with Pearl River in China.
Peter was also sure to give back to the community. For many years he was on the AMA’s Executive Committee and was president on several occasions. He, along with John Egan and others, are responsible for moving the association to becoming the professional body it is today. He also supported the Australian Children’s Music Foundation, to bring music into children’s lives, and the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children, now called Red Kite, which provides music therapy to kids in hospital.
Peter was unable to attend the AMA Gala Awards Dinner and sadly passed away shortly before Christmas 2006.