Peter Thompson (born 1952) is an Australian broadcast journalist and educator. He is a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and an adjunct professor at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third univer ...

. He is director of the Centre for Leadership, a private consultancy on communication. Thompson was the presenter of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

's ''

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

'', a weekly biographical television program about the lives of prominent Australians, which began on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel a ...

in 2005 and ended in 2010 after 238 episodes.

Life and career

Peter Thompson was born in Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, and was educated at

St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill , motto_translation = Strive Strive for better things , established = , type = Independent single-sex secondary day and boarding school , educational_authority = New South Wales Department of Educat ...

and St Pius X College, Chatswood. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in 1977, a Masters of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management in 1984 and a Masters of Public Administration from the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public a ...

in 1987. Thompson began his career as a sports broadcaster on radio at

2LF 2LF is an Australian radio station serving the Young region and is part of the Super Radio Network with its sister station Roccy FM. It was opened in February 1938. The LF stands for Lambing Flats and the station broadcasts on the AM dial on ...

in Young in 1970. He moved to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in 1972 and worked as a presenter on various commercial stations, including 7EX,

7LA 89.3 LAFM (callsign: 7LAA) is an Australian radio station in Tasmania. Owned and operated by ARN, it broadcasts an adult contemporary format to Launceston and surrounding areas. First broadcast on 14 December 1930 as 7LA, the station currently ...

and

TNT9 TNT is an Australian TV station based in Hobart, Tasmania, owned by Southern Cross Austereo. Originally broadcasting to northern Tasmania, it has broadcast to the whole of Tasmania since aggregation of the Tasmanian television market in 1994. H ...

. He also presented the ABC TV current affairs program ''

This Day Tonight ''This Day Tonight'' (TDT) was an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) evening current affairs program from 1967 to 1978. Founding When ''TDT'' premiered in 1967 it was the first regular nightly current affairs program on Australian TV, a ...

'' in 1978. From 1979 to 1982, as project officer for the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profil ...

, he was a leader of the effort to protect the world heritage values of Tasmania's Franklin and Gordon Rivers from hydro-electric development. He wrote two books on the campaign. In 1985 he was presented with the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

Alumni Award for his role in conservation. Thompson presented

702 ABC 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

radio's ''Drivetime'' in 1987 and then the ABC morning current affairs program ''AM'' from 1988 to 1993. He was presenter of ''

Radio National Breakfast ''RN Breakfast'', previously ''Radio National Breakfast'' and sometimes shortened to ''Breakfast'', is a national early morning news program in Australia, broadcast since 2005. The program is broadcast live in the eastern states, and on delay i ...

'' from 1994 to 1999 and again from 2003 to 2004. He also hosted a series of 35 "Wisdom Interviews" for

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

from 2002 to 2004. Thompson was appointed a fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government in 2007 and teaches executive programs in public policy with a focus on communication concepts. His interests include political and social change,

risk communication Risk communication is a complex cross-disciplinary academic field that is part of risk management and related to fields like crisis communication. The goal is to make sure that targeted audiences understand how risks effect to them or their communi ...

and behavioural change. He became an adjunct professor at

's Department of International Communication in 2006. The Centre for Leadership creates educational workshops for the public, private and not-for-profit sectors on public interest issues such as ethics and communicating with integrity, according to

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

's principles of

ethos, pathos and logos The modes of persuasion, modes of appeal or rhetorical appeals (Greek: ''pisteis'') are strategies of rhetoric that classify a speaker's or writer's appeal to their audience. These include ethos, pathos, and logos, all three of which appear in Ar ...

Publications

*''Power in Tasmania'', Australian Conservation Foundation, 1982. *''

Bob Brown Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasm ...

of the

Franklin River The Franklin River is a major perennial river located in the Central Highlands and western regions of Tasmania, Australia. The river is located in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park at the mid northern area of the Tasmanian Wilder ...

'', Allen and Unwin, 1985. *''The Secrets of the Great Communicators'', ABC, 1992. *''Persuading Aristotle'', Allen and Unwin, 2001. *''Wisdom: The Hard Won Gift, Interviews'', ABC, 2003. *''Talking Heads, Interviews'', ABC Books, 2008. *''More Talking Heads, Interviews'', ABC Books, 2009.

References

External links

Academic profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Peter 1952 births Living people ABC radio (Australia) journalists and presenters People educated at St Pius X College, Sydney People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill Harvard Kennedy School alumni