Sir Michael Charles Gerrard Peat (born 16 November 1949) is an English retired accountant and

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the officia ...

. He was the Principal Private Secretary to King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

and

Queen Camilla Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. Camilla was raised in East ...

between 2002 and 2011 when they were Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

Life and career

Peat was born in 1949 and is great-grandson of

William Barclay Peat Sir William Barclay Peat (15 February 1852 – 24 January 1936) was an accountant and one of the founders of KPMG. Career Peat born in Forebank, St Cyrus, Kincardine, Fife, Kincardine, Scotland. He was the second son of James Peat and Marg ...

, founder of the accountancy firm of

Peat Marwick KPMG is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a ne ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he received an MA degree. He later attended the

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and obtained an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degree in 1977. He became an Associate Chartered Accountant in 1965 and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA) in 1975. Peat joined Peat Marwick Mitchell in 1972, became a partner in 1985. He led a 1986 study into the financial management of the Royal Household. From 1987 to 1990, he was the

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting an ...

of the

Privy Purse The Privy Purse is the British sovereign's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster. This amounted to £20.1 million in net income for the year to 31 March 2018. Overview The Duchy is a landed estate of approximately 46,000 acres (20 ...

and administrative adviser to the Royal Household. In 1990, he was appointed Director of Finance and Property Services of the Royal Household, while remaining a partner at KPMG. He retired from KPMG in 1993, and in 1996 was appointed

Keeper of the Privy Purse The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen (or Financial Secretary to the King/Queen) is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the Monarchy of the United Kingd ...

and

Treasurer to the Queen The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen (or Financial Secretary to the King/Queen) is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The officeholder is assisted by th ...

and

Receiver General A receiver general (or receiver-general) is an officer responsible for accepting payments on behalf of a government, and for making payments to a government on behalf of other parties. See also * Treasurer * Receiver General for Canada * Recei ...

of the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...

. He retired from these positions in 2002, when he was appointed as private secretary to the Prince of Wales, taking control of the

Office of the Prince of Wales The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments that support members of the British royal family. Many members of the royal family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, f ...

. In 2005 he was made Principal Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Peat stepped down as the Prince of Wales' private secretary in January 2011. He continued to undertake investment and financial projects for the Prince and provide advice on a part-time basis. Peat was replaced as principal private secretary by William Nye, formerly director of the National Security Secretariat,

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

and a career civil servant with experience at the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

and the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

. Peat became the new independent chairman of

GEMS Education GEMS Education, founded as Global Education Management Systems (GEMS), is an international education company. It is one of the world's largest private school operators, and as of late 2022 it operates more than 60 schools across the Middle East ...

's Board of Directors in 2014.

Honours

Peat was appointed a

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the ...

(CVO) in the

1994 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday. Publication dates vary from year to year. Most are published in supplements to the ''London Gazette'' and many are formally conferred by the monarch (o ...

, later elevated to a

Knight Commander Knight Commander (or Dame Commander) is the second most senior grade of seven British orders of chivalry, three of which are dormant (and one of them continues as a German house order). The rank entails admission into knighthood, allowing the rec ...

(KCVO) in the

1998 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1998 for the United Kingdom, Barbados, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis were announced on 30 December 1997 ...

, and subsequently promoted to a

Knight Grand Cross A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

(GCVO) of the same order, effective on 17 October 2011. Peat is a

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

References

External links

*"Sir Michael Peat: Right hand man." BBC. 6 November 2003.
/sup> *"Sir Michael Peat: The royal axe man." BBC. 13 November 2003.
/sup> *"''The Guardian'' profile: Sir Michael Peat." ''The Guardian''. 25 February 2005.
/sup> {{DEFAULTSORT:Peat, Michael 1949 births Living people Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Members of the Household of the Prince of Wales INSEAD alumni English accountants KPMG people GEMS schools Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England