Sir Arvi Parbo was born 10 February 1926, in Tallinn, Estonia. After attending the Clausthal Mining Academy in Germany (1946-1948) he migrated to Australia in 1949. Parbo graduated from the University of Adelaide was a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1955 and in 1956 he joined the Western Mining Corporation. He was appointed General Manager (1968); Director (1970); Deputy Managing Director (1971); Managing Director (1971); Chairman and Managing Director (1974) and Executive Chairman (1986). In 1990 he retired as an executive, but was appointed non-executive Chairman; a position he retired from in 1999. Other positions included Chairman of Alcoa of Australia (1978-1996); Chairman of Munich Reinsurance Company of Australia (1984-1998); Chairman of Zurich Australian Insurance group (1985-1998); Director of the Aluminium Company of America (1980-1998); Hoechst Australian Investments (1981-1997); Chase AMP Bank (1985-1991); and Sara Lee Corporation (1991-1998). He became Director of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) (1987) and was appointed Chairman of BHP i 1989 until his retirement in 1992.
From the description of Papers of Sir Arvi Parbo, c.1949-2008 [manuscript]. 1949-2008. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 316324206
