WADE, Peter AnthonyEntrepreneur Peter Wade OGC 1967 has worked for many years in the Tourism industry and brought his passion for the future of Australian business to cofound the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship in 2015.
After years working overseas, Peter returned to Australia to support Australian Tourism, working in a number of directorships of leading organisations such as Tourism Queensland, APT in Melbourne and Quicksilver in Far North Queensland. Through this experience, he saw the need for Australian creative thinkers. When the opportunity arose to support budding entrepreneurs, Wade helped established the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship, gifting $10M.
Peter started his first business in 1979. Travelbag was a specialist travel company, initially selling holidays to Australia and New Zealand in the UK. A young Australian in the UK, Peter was convinced his local knowledge could compete with the larger travel operators.
“Our trademark was a full range of Australian experiences available to the UK market with unique stopovers as a point of difference. We ended up with a stopover holiday in Argentina, which no competitors could copy, for at least a while. By the time they caught up, my growing product team at Travelbag were developing new and exciting things for our clients,” Peter recalled in 2017.
Peter also ensured his employees were well trained. After forming a connection with Bournemouth University, when the business sold in 2003 there were over 100 Bournemouth Graduates working for the company, including three directors. 75% of their 700 staff were university educated.
A couple of years before the sale of Travelbag, Peter had established a strong foothold in the industry with the purchase of Bridge the World. This decision to diversify was affirmed when online travel company ebookers bought Travelbag for £55M in 2003.
Peter’s return to Australia saw him use his tourism experience to support a number of leading travel organisations. During this time he reflected on the state of Australia’s industries. “I could see that as a country we have so much to offer in areas like engineering and medicine, but that we needed to train creative thinkers across industries,” Peter said in 2017.
Peter’s brother Darrell’s involvement in the Melbourne Accelerator program at the University of Melbourne and Rufus Black, the Master of Ormond College, encouraged Peter to find a way to help young and budding entrepreneurs to learn their craft. In 2015 the Wade Institute was established.
“Hopefully with places like Wade we can continue to develop the brilliant young minds of Australia. We don’t think that we will create all the solutions to entrepreneurship in Australia, but we will play an important role along with other educational organisations, business and government. What we do hope beyond everything else is that our students will help Australia reach its full potential in this fast-changing world.”
Peter attended The Geelong College as a boarder from Grade 4 in 1962 to Form VI in 1970. He performed well in athletics and was part of a football team for most of his time. A strong ruckman he reached the 1st XVIII in 1970. In the same year he was a Calvert House Prefect and represented Victoria at the United Nations Conference in Tasmania. From his final year studies, he received Merits in Economics, Australian History and Social Studies. After school, Peter went on to study a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne while at Ormond College.
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Sources: Ad Astra June 2017, OGC 1967.