The Men

On the 30th of January, 2009, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and Gordon Brown turned to the only blokes in the world they could trust to find and rescue the world economy - Peter Krogdahl and Michael Whiteman. They could not have made a better choice. Presented here are short biographies of these two, most exceptional of men.





Michael Whiteman

Born in Melbourne, Australia in December 1980, Michael was an exceptional child. School Captain and dux of the year of 1996 class at the School for the Preparation of Exceptional Children in the Interests of Australian Leadership (aka SPECIAL), Michael excelled both academically and on the sporting grounds. Captain of the SPECIAL Cricket Team 1992-1996, the first eighth grader ever to have the honor, and national all-around champion in junior-elite gymnastics 1993 and 1995, Michael also played leading roles in the school drama productions throughout his senior years.


After graduation from SPECIAL in 1996 (at only 16 years of age), Michael accepted a scholarship at UC Berkeley, gaining Bachelor's degrees with honors majoring in both Engineering Physics and Dance and Performance Studies in only two years. Shortly afterward Michael gained his PhD at Yale, specialising in High-Energy Astrophysics, again in an astonishing 2 years, while simultaneously completing flight training at NASA, joining the STS-101 mission to resupply the International Space Station in May of 2000.

In late 2000 Michael returned to Australia, spending 2 years at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and appearing in guest roles on the Australian soap operas Neighbours and Home and Away. Though having great passion for the art of acting, Michael found the roles available to him in the local industry to be vapid and uninspiring, and hoping to refocus and bring meaning back to his life, he set off to travel solo into the Australian bush on foot to live only with what nature and his own ingenuity could provide.

After six months of isolation in the Australian bush Michael set out on a journey by kayak to Thailand, via the islands of the Indonesian archipelago and Malaysia. For the next year Michael would develop his Muay Thai skills and live simply in the idyllic village of Tham Wau Daeng, gaining a great appreciation for the ways of the Thai villager. It was a deeply satisfying time for Michael, but unfortunately it was not to last, with the Columbia Shuttle disaster throwing Michael's life into disarray.

Knowing that Michael was perhaps the most qualified person in the world to get to the bottom of what caused the disaster, the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Roy D. Bridges Jr., flew to Thailand to personally appeal to Michael to return to the USA to head up the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Following the release of the CAIB's final report in August of 03, Michael consulted extensively with NASA, reforming their organisational structure and reporting mechanisms to prevent future accidents. With the success of the space shuttle Discovery's mission in August of 2005, Michael resolved to return to one of his greatest passions - acting, but it was not to be.

Originally cast as King Leonidas in the hit film 300, Michael selflessly put his acting career on hold and returned to Australia in November 2005 to coach the Australian Cricket Team following their shock defeat in the Ashes tour of 2005. While Michael tirelessly worked to rebuild the Ponting and Warne's shattered senses of self worth, and coached Glenn McGrath on the finer points of bowling technique, Gerard Butler did a satisfactory job of replacing him in the film (even if he wasn't nearly as buff).

Once the Australian Cricket Team was back on track, Michael returned to the arts world and accepted the position of Head Artistic Director at Cirque du Soleil, and oversaw the development of the new show 'Corteo' - an enchanting procession of unruly clowns, contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, puppeteers and singers. Michael sums up the experience of Corteo by quoting the Italian novelist and poet Cesare Pavese. "We do not remember days, we remember moments,” Michael said. “You will go away with a lot of animating moments.”

Though the work with Cirque du Soleil was deeply satisfying for Michael, the "real world" intervened again in the form of the economic crisis in September of 2008, and in December 2008 Michael resigned from his position at Cirque to advise Barack Obama's transition team on how best to prevent the total collapse of the US economy. With the world economy officially declared missing in January 2009, and the official plea from Obama, Brown and Rudd to 'go find it, stimulate it and bring it back', Michael, together with longtime friend and colleague Peter Krogdahl, began preparations for what is possibly the most daring rescue mission ever attempted...

Peter Danger Krogdahl

Peter was born into a loving family in Townsville in 1979. A typical middle class upbringing lay ahead, but merely a year later, on a family holiday to Ayer’s Rock, his life’s course, and that of world history, was changed forever. Nobody had been able to put all of the facts together, but it is widely believed that Peter was stolen by a dingo that day, and subsequently raised by dingoes in the Australian outback. As a result, he is to this day unable to get away from anyone who vigorously scratches him on his lower back!

Occasionally sighted by the local indigenous population, the extremely fast and elusive Peter entered aboriginal folklore. Local aborigines knew him as both Romulus and Remus, his speed and mysteriousness were such that the local Aboriginal people originally thought there where two of him!

Peter’s dingo education was of the highest order (with his almost unsurpassed IQ, later training Stephen Hawking in the field of relativity and quantum mechanics). Peter was able to intercept multiplexed telecoms signals passed through the outback on telecoms and satellite communications networks. Learning all science, mathematics and various international languages also having fluency in three dingo dialects from age two. Peter also gained culture from TV signals and highly privileged information intercepting ASIO communications, which would prove vital in his later endeavours.

After living till the age of 15 in the outback on the many microwave repeater towers scattered in the Australian bush, Peter moved back to Townsville and months later invented the microwave oven. Initially naming it the ‘Telecom Multiplex Microwave 2000’. The original model had a 1.6m diameter telecoms microwave emitter as its reactor.

With new found wealth from the development and success of the microwave oven, and with his strong humanitarian streak, Peter went on to form the Cancer And Radiation Society (CARS). Spending almost every waking moment on CARS for the next five years of his life Peter was able to help the people of Townsville with his CARS expertise. He dedicated many late hours to CARS, with visitations to many industrial estates to find worthy recipients.

During this time, Peter’s company formed a partnership with a Japanese institution, Toyo Yokohama Radiation Education Society. TYRES made for an amazing partnership, though due to excessive friction between the societies and expenses from joint CARS - TYRES endeavours the TYRES partnership deal went up in smoke, leaving the CAR society unable to function correctly without the other.

With the CARS saga behind him, at the age of 21, Peter moved to the UK and with his world renowned technical and high technology skills was instantly commissioned by Apple to come up with product ideas to save the ailing brand. Though Peter was actually more of a Banana guy (being a North Queenslander), he took the job to lead the brand.

Peter had always had an aversion to the bulky music CD, and a love of computing technology, and free music. With this combination of ideas, Peter developed devices from home, in his 11 cubic meter apartment in the heart of London. Peter’s most successful product came in the form of a compact Mp3 player. Apple were very keen on the product, Peter named it, the ‘Internet Pilfering Of Discs’ unit, After further discussions with Apple executives, it was marketed as the abbreviated ‘IPOD’, and released on 23/10/2001, to coincide with Peter’s birthday.

With its resounding success on the open market, along with a number of other products he developed up till late 2003. With his cash flow issues gone, Peter returned to Australia. He was very quickly approached by ASIO and, with his extensive and amazing array of skills and unique upbringing, was asked to head up the Asio Western European, Spanish & Overseas Militia Department.

Heading this department required a commitment to a dual life, posing as an exceptional engineer by day and at all other times heading the AWESOM department. With both parts of Peter’s dual life flourishing for almost six years, the time came for his country (and the world) to really need his help. Peter being the AWESOM director had been tracking encrypted ‘chatter’ from various communications sources. Soon after he was approached by ASIO and world leaders about the issue of the missing economy disaster (along with a large chunk of both Peter investments… It just got personal), his suspicions of a merchant banker plot had been confirmed. By the time they had come to Peter he had already rallied his long time Friend Michael Whiteman and organised a reconnaissance mission. Peter and Michael are Broke for Going!