Dr Peter Yule is a freelance historian and a fellow of the School of History at the University of Melbourne. He has written a wide range of histories, including The Royal Children's Hospital: A History of Faith, Science and Love (1999), In the Public Interest: 150 Years of the Victorian Auditor-General's Office (2002), Carlton: A History (ed., 2004), and Steel Spies and Spin: The Collins Class Submarine Story (2008). More recently he has written biographies of two prominent Melbourne-based financiers: W. L. Baillieu (1859-1936), who founded the prominent family dynasty; and Sir Ian Potter (1902-1994), a major figure in Australia's post-war industrial expansion. Peter will speak about his research on these two remarkable figures, and on the challenges of biography more generally.