Peter Guilford

Peter Guilford is a partner in GPlus Europe, a Brussels based lobbying firm he established with former BBC journalist Nigel Gardner in 2000.

Background

Guilford was a journalist with The Times from 1988-1991, after which he worked in a series of positions with the European Commission including as spokesman for the Commissioner for Competition, Sir Leon Brittan, spokesman for the EU Commission President and now Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

A biographical note states that since founding GPlus, Guilford "has devised and run political and media strategies for major blue-chip companies in the technology, retail, media, transport, luxury goods and food sectors. He has been at the forefront of negotiations with the EU to resolve anti-trust and state aid investigations, anti-dumping inquiries, WTO disputes and customs problems. He is also closely involved in the growing public debate over food safety and nutrition and the way it impacts on EU regulation."

"He began his Commission career as Spokesman for Competition at the time when the EU acquired new rules to block big mergers. He then became Trade Spokesman in 1993, handling the Uruguay Round of world trade talks and subsequent global agreements on telecoms, financial services and information technology," it states.

He "joined the Commission's international trade department in 1997 as a negotiator on China's entry into the World Trade Organisation. He then joined Romano Prodi's transitional office to advise the new President on media strategy, recruit the Commission's new team of Spokespeople and help set up the new Press and Communication Service. ... Peter became Deputy Spokesman under Prodi, running strategy, taking the daily press briefing and managing the Commission's overall media relations. In 1999 he spearheaded the EU's media handling at the controversial world trade talks in Seattle."

It's What You Know ... And Who You Know

"Contrary to popular opinion, business here is not about address books. It does help to know people, but what is key is the insight gained from having worked with these people," he told PR Week in 2007.

He says: "The EU operates under a system you cannot predict unless you've had experience from the inside. It is unstructured, half-built - its ideology and the perimeters of government haven't been decided." In 2000 Guilford and the other founding partner BBC journalist Nigel Gardener judged themselves to be uniquely positioned to guide clients through this 'unstructured' system. In 2006 GPlus was purchased by Omnicom for £8 million. Omnicom is the world's largest advertising agency holding company. In 2007 Omnicom announced its 21st consecutive year of record profits. Omnicom has been in existence for 21 years. In 2007 its annual group revenues totaled $12.7 billion, up 11.6% from 2006.

Working for the Kremlin

In 2006 the Kremlin hired GPlus as part of a Ketchum-led team during Vladimir Putin's one-year term as President of the G8. GPlus, Guilford said, was tasked with covering "Russia's G8 priorities - energy security, education and infectious diseases. In reality, the broader view of that brief was everything to do with Russia's integration into the broader world economy."

"Russia is not perfect," he told PR Week. "It doesn't have a perfect democracy, it doesn't have perfect human rights, but it has come a hell of a long way in the past 15 years".

"Now there is a commitment to liberal economics, human rights and democracy. They're not always perfect, they're not always kept to, but the direction is right," he said.

This article is part of the EU Revolving Door project of SpinWatch.

References

• GPlus Europe, Peter Guilford, accessed 05 March 2010.
• Marriott, Hannah, "Brussels' Inside Man - Peter Guilford," PR Week, 16 March 2007.