Peter Holmes a Court
- Category : Business-Top-executive
- Type : GP
- Profile : 1/3 - Investigating / Martyr
- Definition : Split - Small (7)
- Incarnation Cross : RAX Explanation 4
Biography
Australian CEO of The Australian Agricultural Company, a beef baron, entertainment producer and co-heir to the Holmes à Court fortune founded by his father, Robert Holmes a Court.
After 16 years, half his lifetime abroad, former New York merchant banker Peter Holmes a Court returned home to Australia in November 2000 to make his own mark in business. He sold his interests in theatres and television production in the USA and U.K. with the beef business firmly on his horizon. "It has been reported that I'll be investing between $15 million and $20 million in the business and I'm doing that because I happen to think it's a good investment, I happen to think the company's got very strong assets," Peter said.
His background includes reading law at Oxford University and earning a BA in economics and theatre from Middlebury College, Vermont. In 1992 Holmes à Court was a financial analyst with James D. Wolfensohn Inc, an investment bank in New York. In 1993 he formed Back Row Productions, which grew to a New York, London and Sydney based producer of live entertainment, and television and video production. Back Row produced over 20 shows, in 30 countries and 300 cities. Acts included the Australian show Tap Dogs, the UK’s Eddie Izzard, and the US’s Jerry Seinfeld.
Peter lives in Sydney with his wife Divonne, a former corporate attorney, and their sons, George and Robert.
Late last year Peter Holmes a Court became the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Agricultural Company. With 380,000 cattle on 19 properties in Queensland and the Northern Territory, AA Co. is the nation's second largest cattle producer and the third largest landholder. Its 6.5 million hectares equates to one per cent of Australia's landmass. And it plans to be the biggest. AA Co. wants 1 million cattle by 2004. "We want to ensure there's all year supply of beef. It comes back to 100 million kilograms of dressed weight beef, which is a turn off of about 440,000 head of cattle a year. Ends up being a herd of about 1.1 million animals. But it's not about having a million head of cattle so we can put six zeros behind a one, it's about backing a product that we can say that we can reasonably say we can get to the market 365 days a year," Peter Holmes a Court said. His father died in September 1990.