Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee AM FASSA joined the History Council of Victoria in November 2019. He was appointed as Chair of the Board in March 2020.

Peter was appointed to a Personal Chair in History at the University of Melbourne in 1993. He was President of the Academic Board in 2002-03, then appointed to the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) in 2003 before becoming the University's first Provost in 2007-09, with particular responsibility for the design and implementation of the University's new curriculum structures. He chaired the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority in 2007-09, and chaired the Board of Melbourne University Publishing in 2012-17. He continues to teach at the University of Melbourne and regularly speaks about history to school and community groups.

Peter has published widely on the history of modern France, most recently Robespierre: a Revolutionary Life (Yale University Press, 2012); and Liberty or Death: the French Revolution (Yale University Press, 2016).

Peter is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. He was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to education in 2003 and became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012.