Peter Friend is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and has a doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge. After specialist training, he spent a year in the USA, returning in 1989 to an academic consultant post at Cambridge. He moved to the University of Oxford in 1999 as Professor of Transplantation and consultant in Transplant and HPB surgery. Since reaching the statutory retirement age, he has since continued his academic role within the University of Oxford. His current research focuses on experimental studies and clinical implementation of isolated organ perfusion. He is a Vice-president and Trustee of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, past-president of the British Transplantation Society. He was co-founder of OrganOx, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, which was acquired by the Terumo Corporation in 2025.