Peter Hirst leads a team of professionals who partner with clients and faculty to design, develop and deliver innovative and impactful executive education programs for individuals and companies. He has over thirty years of experience in international strategy, technology consulting and organizational leadership and development.
His past roles have included: CEO of the commercialization, consulting, and executive education business of the London School of Economics; Senior Science and Technology Policy Officer and Westminster Fellow in the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, where he advised MPs and Peers of all parties on policy issues in the physical sciences, defense, and IT; and entrepreneur. Peter has served as director and board adviser to businesses and non-profit organizations on three continents. He served for six years on the Board (as Chair from 2018-19) of Unicon, the international industry association for university-based executive education; was a Director and Co-Chair of FRED Leadership, a collaboration between educators and business leaders to elevate the field of ethical leadership; was a founding director of the Internet of Things Talent Consortium; and has been a board member (since 2006) and President (2007-2009) of the British American Business Council of New England.
In his philanthropic endeavors, Peter is a member of the Advisory Board of Self-Help Africa, an international charity that supports economic development in Africa by supporting robust farm-to-fork supply chains to create sustainable business ecosystems in place of unreliable subsistence farming; and served for twelve years as a trustee (2011-23) and President (2017-2023) of the American Foundation of Scotland’s University of St. Andrews.
Peter earned a First Class Degree with Joint Honors in Physics and Electronics (1989) followed by a PhD in Physics (1992) from the University of St. Andrews. In 2012, he was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the HRM Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his service to British and American business and academia interests.
