OHA Australia Wide – Peter Borghouts (OH ’91)
Meet Peter Borghouts (OH ’91) — a former athlete who’s keeping defence projects on track!
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Name: Peter Borghouts (OH ’91)
Years at Haileybury: 1988 to 1991
Current location: Canberra
Other locations: Brisbane, Sydney, Townsville, Harrisburg (Pennsylvania, USA) and Toowoomba
Very few OHA members can claim to have been a national track athlete.
And none can claim to have met Linford Christie, Maurice Green, Cathy Freeman and Nova Peris-Kneebone. That’s unless you’re Peter Borghouts. On top of this, Peter has travelled extensively implementing defence projects for the Australian and US Defence Departments.
Peter started at the Keysborough Campus in 1988 and graduated in 1991.
He remembers the opening of the Edrington campus at Berwick in 1989 as a big step in the school’s expansion and the most historic event of his time at Haileybury. Peter was a talented track athlete and remembers many successes on the track but also the odd disaster. For example, in the 1991 APS Athletics Championships, Peter was part of the fastest 4X100 metre relay team in the APS which was also the third fastest in Victoria. His team was destined to win the 4X100 metres relay at the APS Athletics Championship by a country mile (or perhaps just a long way since the race is only 400 metres!) Tragically, they were disqualified in the heats. This ultimately cost Haileybury the Championship 1991. But like all good athletes, Peter put the set-backs behind him and went on to achieve an impressive list of athletics results after leaving Haileybury. He has won professional races such as the Latrobe Gift and the Devonport 200 metres; competed at the Stawell Gift; placed third in the Australian University Games in the 200 metres; and placed third in Nationals for the 4X100 metres.
Peter studied a Bachelor of Science at the Australian Defence Force Academy (University of NSW), graduating from the Royal Military College – Duntroon in 1995 into the Royal Australian Army Ordinance Corps. This marked the beginning of a career in defence logistics that would take Peter to various far-flung locations. Peter has worked on exchange for the US Department of Defense with highlights including managing the development of a logistics depot for US forces in Okinawa, Japan; managing the construction of warehouse facilities for the largest logistics base used by US Forces on Continental USA (it stores over US$9 billion of inventory!); and being an officer in command of over 150 Australian soldiers.
Despite travelling all over the world, serving in the Army for 23 years and raising a family, Peter has somehow found time to complete a Master of Information Technology at Swinburne University of Technology and a Master of Management Studies at the University of NSW.
Peter is now a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers – Canberra, working as a consultant predominantly with the organisation he has dedicated the majority of his working life to – Defence. The only real difference is that he doesn’t have to travel so much which leaves more time to spend in Canberra. Peter says Canberra is a fantastic place to raise a family and close to both the beach and ski fields, but isn’t so great if you’re an AFL fan.
His advice to younger OHA members would be to focus on a couple of areas rather than spreading yourself too thin. When summing up his time at Haileybury, Peter said “Haileybury, specifically Michael Aikman, were very influential in my development as a young man. It gave me the foundation for who I am today.”
In short …
- Is there a film you’d recommend to anyone? The Shawshank Redemption
- What’s your favourite band? Queen and Van Halen
- Have you met anyone famous? Linford Christie; Maurice Green; Cathy Freeman ; Nova Peris-Kneebone; Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove; and Governor of New South Wales, General David Hurley.
- What was a highlight of 2018 for you? One of my sons making it into the Greater Western Sydney Academy for Aussie Rules and the other making the national school championships for swimming and cross-country.
- What are you looking forward to in 2019? Continuing to watch my children grow up and spending as much time as I can with my family in general.
