The ex-BDO chief people officer will supervise finance, operations, marketing, and HR across ANZ
Former BDO chief people officer Peter O’Sullivan has been named deputy CEO and head of people and culture at Pearce IP.
As second-in-command to the CEO, O’Sullivan will supervise finance, operations, marketing, and HR in the ANZ region. He will collaborate closely with leadership and the firm’s teams, in addition to leading the corporate services team.
He joined the firm on 2 June. Pearce IP founder and CEO Naomi Pearce highlighted O’Sullivan’s more than three decades of experience in HR, law and business.
“I’m delighted to be joining Pearce IP at such an exciting stage in its journey. The firm has built a strong culture and reputation, and I look forward to working with Naomi and the team to support continued growth and deliver on Pearce IP’s long-term vision”, O’Sullivan said. “I believe great businesses are built on great people, and I’m excited to help strengthen the leadership, culture and operational capability that will underpin the next chapter”.
He was with BDO in Australia for over 14 years, contributing significantly to its people, culture, leadership and organisational strategy.
In 2024, he made partner. He was also on BDO Australia’s Culture Council and BDO International’s global people committee.
O’Sullivan was HR business partner at Bankwest, having launched the HR function in the Queensland branch’s business division. He was senior HR advisor at Ergon Energy’s SPARQ Solutions, overseeing the HR integration of the Ergon Energy and ENERGEX ICT teams into the SPARQ Solutions team. He also established and led the newly created HR function, per LinkedIn.
He was the senior consultant of organisational development and leadership at the Queensland Department of Emergency Services, where he crafted a performance development framework and a new HR policy framework. Moreover, he was the national manager of people development operations at Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst), where he was also once a commercial litigator – as national manager, he headed up a team of people development managers across the country and was in charge of providing generalist HR support to the partnership across Australia and Asia. He was also tasked wth managing performance appraisal and remuneration review processes, recruitment and performance management in Australia and Asia.
O’Sullivan has served as a non-executive director with the Queensland Doctors’ Health Programme and Metro Arts. He completed the Harvard Business School Global Executive Leadership Program last year and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
He obtained his BA, LLB (Hons) and MBA from the University of Queensland.
