International trade expert joins Business School

The University of Auckland
Media Release
8 February 2007

International trade and executive education expert joins Business School

Former international diplomat and trade specialist Peter Withers has returned to New Zealand after 29 years offshore to join The University of Auckland Business School.

Peter has been appointed Director of Academic Programmes at the Graduate School of Enterprise (GSE), home to the Business School's executive graduate and master's programmes.

Peter has an impressive business pedigree, having worked in diplomacy, business consulting, and executive education in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

He established the first New Zealand embassy in Turkey, and was New Zealand's first regional trade director to North and South America.

He has held senior administrative and teaching roles in leading US business schools UCLA, Pepperdine University and the Peter F Drucker School of Management. He hopes to use his background to lift the global prestige of the Graduate School.

"Part of competing internationally means training our business people to operate in a global economy. A well-rounded graduate school should be providing education relevant to business people at all levels," he says.

His academic expertise spans foreign policy, executive coaching, market entry, cross-cultural management and international business.

Peter says the Graduate School's focus on enterprise was a draw card to the role.

"It signals an understanding that business education is about developing enterprise, and that will be my focus, as it should be the focus of New Zealand's business community," he says.

Peter holds an MA in Political Science from Canterbury University and is a graduate of the Advanced Executive Program at the prestigious Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

ENDS

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