Sir Arvi Parbo
PARBO, Arvi, AC FTSE HonFIEAust CPEng (1944-2019)
Sir Arvi Parbo was born in Estonia and fled to a German refugee camp as an 18 year old. Post WW2 he attended the Clausthal Mining Academy in Germany and migrated to Australia in 1949. While working in a quarry near Adelaide he progressed to a 1955 honours degree in mining engineering from the University of Adelaide.
Parbo joined Western Mining Corporation Limited as an Underground Surveyor at Bullfinch, WA in 1956. His strengths surfaced quickly, and his career advanced rapidly, from technical assistant to Managing Director and finally Chairman of WMC. He retired from this position in 1999 after forty years of distinguished work in the Australian minerals industry. Major corporations including Alcoa, Alcan, Zurich, Hoescht, Chase AMP and BHP Ltd, all felt the influence of Parbo as a director and, in some cases, chairman. He was the founding President of the Business Council of Australia (1983), President of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1990) and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1995 – 97).
Parbo was widely honoured. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1978 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1993. He holds the Queen's Jubilee Medal, and honours from the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan and Estonia. He has Honorary Doctorates in Science, Engineering, Business and Law.
He was added to the Engineeers Australia South Australian Hall of Fame in 2006.
