Peter Leisink studied English language and literature (BA 1973) and Sociology (BA 1978; MA 1980) at Utrecht University. He earned his PhD at Wageningen University (PhD Sociology 1989).

From 1979 until 2019 Peter Leisink was employed by Utrecht University. He was lecturer and associate professor at the department of General Social Sciences, teaching mainly in the field of work and organization, employment relations and management. He was visiting senior fellow at the Business School of Warwick University (UK) in 1993. From the start in 2000 he was involved in the department of Public Administration and Organizational Science; since 2002 as a full professor. He participated in various international research projects funded by the European Commission. For 10 years he was a co-chair of the Study Group Public Personnel Policies of the European Group for Public Administration. He acted as program coordinator of the master program Research in Public Administration and Organization Science and the master program Strategic Human Resource Management. He participated in executive training and advised organizations in the field of leadership and strategic HRM in the public and nonprofit sector. He retired in 2019. He is still involved in several research projects.