Through all of the events which Peter produced and managed, large and small, he showed himself to be thoroughly professional; be amazingly talented; be highly ethical; be immensely creative; be incredibly committed; be technically very competent; possess strong organizational skills; have the ability to deal with people at all levels of the company from the most senior executive to very junior levels; be an original thinker; be incredibly enthusiastic; be able to achieve universal “buy in” by the various stakeholders of a project such that following the completion of the project they usually saw it as their own; be a team builder (the outcomes of  Peter’s work were usually the result of a great team effort lead and inspired by Peter – the team frequently included many BTAL staff); and be able to make the job fun (everyone I can think of enjoyed their experiences of working with Peter – as they walked away from the completed project they always did so with a sense of having done a good job, having achieved the desired outcome and having had a lot of fun along the way)

Probably most importantly, he demonstrated an ability to get to the essence of an issue. He could very quickly come to understand the nuances of a particular corporate culture, corporate politics and personalities and develop creative approaches to dealing with these. He could examine problems and issues from an outsider’s perspective and propose solutions which often had eluded the insiders. This was despite his lack of technical expertise in the financial world.

Peter Warne
Executive Vice President, Head of Financial Markets
Bankers Trust Australia Limited (1988 – 1999)