Peter Brown's grandfather Brenton was a well-connected businessman and power broker of his time, head of the Crown Life Insurance Co., onetime president of the Vancouver Board of Trade,[3] and a founder of the right-of-centre municipal NPA party.

[10] In 1967 he transferred to his hometown and the next year joined a boutique investment firm called Hemsworth, Turton, and Company.

[10] Far from it, when noted Canadian historian Peter C. Newman included Brown in the second volume of his Canadian Establishment series, he described the Vancouver financier as “the single most important player on the Vancouver Stock Exchange, underwriting nearly three-quarters of its new issues — worth a projected $225 million in 1981 alone”.

[11] By 1993, the company, renamed Canaccord Capital, had grown to 400 staff, with investment advisors in six branches across Canada.

[20] He was appointed Lead Director and Member of the Finance Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games.

[26] Brown has been recognized many times over his career, including the Order of British Columbia,[27] and lifetime achievement awards from the IIAC Investment Industry Hall of Fame (2015),[28] Canadian Business Hall of Fame (2014),[29] Business Laureates of B.C.