Peter Snowden Wilson AM

Peter Wilson has worked with, and for, some of Australia’s most well-known names including five Australian Treasurers – Cairns, Crean, Connor, Hayden and Howard.

When the Cain Government was swept to power in 1982, Peter was drafted to the Treasury Department in Victoria and ultimately became the Head of the Department of Industry.

Peter then changed tack in 1990 and moved to the private sector where he headed up major divisions of ANZ over the next eight years.

From 1999 – 2006, Peter was Head of HR and Operating Risk at AMCOR, responsible for operations in 40 countries with 22,000 employees. He initiated a forensic accounting and IT audit which exposed that the then CEO of AMCOR had been operating a cartel with the VISY Group.

In 2001 Peter was awarded the Centenary Medal, bestowed by the Australian Government to honour people who have contributed to Australian society or government. 

In 2005, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to business and industry, particularly through the development of workplace reforms in the areas of safety, rehabilitation and compensation, and for community service.

Today Peter’s CV covers a list of major Directorships, Board memberships and Chairmanships that is as extensive as it is impressive, displaying outstanding leadership across the business, sporting, academic and financial worlds.

Past positions include Chair of Australian HR Institute for 14 years; Immediate Past Chair of Vision Super; Adjunct Professor in Management at the Monash Business School at Monash University; Director and Finance Chairman of the 1997 World Basketball Championships; Director of the Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Foundation, Chair of Yarra Valley Water and Chair of Australian Disability Network Limited, comprising nearly 500 organizational members employing 2.5 million Australians.

Peter has also authored a highly regarded book on mentoring, Make Mentoring Work, which draws on over 90 interviews with Australian leaders from business politics and sport. The second edition with 100 interviews was published in May 2015.

In 2017 after the most tumultuous year in the history of CPA Australia which saw its whole Board and CEO suddenly cease office, Peter was elected by the organization’s 170,000 members to lead a new Board charged with restructuring the CPA Australia’s governance and operations. This restructure concluded successfully in 2021.

In 2022, Peter took up an appointment as Chair of the Power and Water Corporation in Australia’s Top End which supplies electricity, gas and water services to four urban centres and 75 remote communities in the Northern Territory.

Peter was made a Life Member of the Australian HR Institute in 2018, and a Life Member of CPA Australia in 2023.