Career
Peat trained as an economist at Bristol University and University College London. He worked as an economist for various United Kingdom Government departments - including a brief spell at Her Majesty Treasury and eight years at the Scottish Office - and also carried his economic toolkit to assignments overseas, to Bangkok in 1972-1974 and Botswana in 1980-1984. He was Group Chief Economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
On 1 July 2005 Peat was appointed the Director of the David Hume Institute.
Peat joined the on 1 January 2005 as the National Governor for Scotland on the former Board of Governors, he replaced Sir Robert Smith (now Lord Smith of Kelvin). During his time on the board he was the chairman of the Audit Committee, a position Sir Robert also held.
He was also the Chairman of the Pension Board Trustees. Upon the formation of the Trust, Peat was one of four Governors (including Richard Tait, Dermot Gleeson and then Chairman Michael Grade) who transitioned to the new governing body of the On 1 November 2008 his term as a Trustee was extended until 31 December 2010.
Peat retired from the board of the on 31 December 2010 after serving two terms.
