About The Author
Peter Felix has spent his life exploring the world and working across cultures, countries, and careers. Born in post-war London to a Jewish-German refugee father and an English mother, Peter grew up with a deep appreciation for history, resilience, and the importance of global understanding.
After studying in the UK, he began his journey overseas through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), working in East Pakistan on rural development and family planning programs. This experience sparked a lifelong passion for international work and public service. He later studied at the prestigious INSEAD business school in France and went on to build a successful global career in executive search, leadership consulting, and international business.
Peter’s professional path took him to some of the world’s most exciting cities, including Paris, New York, Hong Kong, and London. Along the way, he worked with business leaders, policymakers, and professionals from all over the world, helping to build strong organizations and global connections.
His experiences across five continents have given him a unique perspective on history, politics, development, and human nature. In Around the World in 80 Years, Peter reflects on the personal and global events that shaped his life, offering thoughtful insights, humor, and stories that inspire and inform.
Peter Felix
Born and brought up in the United Kingdom, Peter Felix lived in the United States, Bangla Desh, Algeria, France and Hong Kong during his career and travelled to more than 80 countries. He received his BA in Social Studies and Law from Exeter University and MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
After graduating from Exeter Peter served with Voluntary Service Overseas in East Pakistan (now Bangla Desh) where he ran a rural publicity programme for the Academy for Rural Development in Comilla publicising their family planning, agricultural development, education and women’s emancipation programs. A unique opportunity to become involved in a project with immense impact on rural life in the nation. On completing his service he returned to the UK by continuing eastwards around the world and visiting 23 countries en route.
Peter started his executive career at IBM’s head office in the UK where he worked on marketing policy in support of a 1,000 strong sales and systems engineering force. He acted aa a link between head office and the branches around the UK and helped advise on issues such as contracts, sales ethics and the implications of the major anti trust action filed against IBM by the US Department of Justice. At IBM Peter developed his executive management skills which prepared him for an MBA at INSEAD, the leading European Business School in Fontainebleau, France.
His INSEAD experience was life changing and opened up an international career for him. Initially he joined the Bendix Corporation at a divisional head office in Paris as assistant to the General Manager , Europe and then as Personnel Manager. Here he witnessed the impact of the major economic downturn caused by the Oil Crisis of 1974 and then was obliged to implement the closing of the head office and the redundancy of all its executives. As he says this experience opened his eyes to the realties of corporate life!
With the economy in a depressed state executive opportunities in Europe were scarce and Peter accepted a management consultancy position in Algeria with the Whitehead Consulting Group to provide management education to executives at Sonatrach, the national oil and gas industry. Adding to his already diverse international experience this position required a degree of fluency in French and the ability to communicate management principles to a largely inexperienced audience. After almost two years, during which he worked in Skikda and Algiers and explored the oases and Sahel region of the Saharan desert, he returned to the UK to find new opportunities. The Whitehead Consulting group had recently expanded into executive search and thus began his career in headhunting which engaged him for the next 37 years.
Peter’s experience in executive search in London, New York and Hong Kong, working for corporate clients in Industry and Financial Services, provided him with a unique opportunity to communicate with top client management, to witness the strengths and weaknesses of corporate leaders and to advise accordingly on Human Resources issues.
By working in three world capital cities Peter obtained a unique perspective on both world and business affairs which he recounts in his book. After his period working in Hong Kong he and his wife, June, by now a fast rising rising corporate executive in Financial Services, returned to New York and Peter began his full-time career in not-for-profit management as President of the worldwide Association of Executive Search Consultants.
From 1984 to 1994, Peter had already gained considerable experience in association management at the British-American Chamber of Commerce in New York and London which he served as Director, President, and finally Chief Executive Officer. During his tenure, this transatlantic organisation grew substantially and became a high-profile promoter of business between the United States and Britain. It became normal for Peter to rub shoulders with the Chairs and Chief Executives of transatlantic corporations as well political leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and the ambassadors of both countries, many of whom became members of the Chamber’s Advisory Board. In 1992 he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by her majesty the Queen in recognition of services to British commercial interests.
During his subsequent career at the Association of Executive Search Consultants Peter was successful in developing the organisation into a global representative body for the executive search profession. He traveled widely to major cities of the world promoting best practice in executive search consulting and speaking to large numbers of consultants in many differed firms. During this time executive search became better known as a key professional service for most organisations even including sports teams and appointments at the Vatican. Acting as a focal point for industry wide issues Peter dealt with Government agencies with issues such as Data Privacy in the European Union.
During his time in New York Peter also became involved on a voluntary basis with the St. George’s Society of New York, a long established Charity helping beneficiaries with a British Commonwealth heritage, eventually becoming President. Here he was able to leverage many of the senior contacts that he had developed at the British American Chamber of Commerce.
During this time he and June also witnessed the tragedy of 9/11, June’s Office being only two blocks from the World Trade Towers. An indelible memory.
By 2014 Peter’s wife had become a senior executive at Citibank but then was recruited to run Europe for an international payments company. Thus began 10 years in London during which, after five years, she became Chief Executive of a large public financial services company. June describes her career in her own book : The Martial Arts Way to CEO.
Back in London Peter launched an executive mentoring and board advisory practice with a long time friend and former partner at Korn/Ferry International, Paul Turner. He also became Chairman of the Scientific Exploration Society after serving as a trustee for several years. He was additionally a trustee of Books Beyond Words, a disability learning charity, and contiunues on the Advisory Board of St.George’s Society of New York.
Following a serious health issue June stood down from her CEO role in 2023 and the family has now returned to the USA to Miami Beach where Peter continues with his charity work and June has developed a portfolio of non executive director positions, They are occasional investors in start up companies.Their son Max is now studying at INSEAD for an MBA.