It is with great sadness that we farewell Dr Peter Crossman. Peter had a significant influence on the founding directors of AEC. He was honours supervisor to Carey and employed both Carey and then Simon on the Queensland State Modelling (QSM) Project at the Centre for Applied Economics and Research (CAERA) at James Cook University. Simon then relocated with Peter to Queensland Treasury in Brisbane in 1991 before starting the Brisbane office of Australian Economic Consultants (AEC) in 1995.
In more recent years Peter worked with AEC on various model development and client projects that required innovative yet intellectually grounded solutions.
Carey said, ”I was privileged with the time and patience Peter invested into me and was fortunate to learn from the best and Peter was without doubt one of the best economists I have ever met. I am sure Peter will be up there with a coffee in one hand and a red marker in the other solving problems and making statistics perform magic.”
Simon kept in regular touch with Peter after leaving Treasury visiting the Crossman family on several of their overseas excursions at Cambridge University, UK and in Abu Dhabi. After Peter semi-retired Simon invited him to assist AEC on many challenging product development projects and tricky client problems.
Simon commented “Aside from being a great economist, Peter was a damn fine fellow. Aside from economics, our discussions would vary widely including diverse topics such as WWI, technology, cricket and rugby. I also always came away with an economics angle to think about.”