Graham Barr

Graham Barr was in charge of governmental relations at BP for 27 years. He left BP in 2002 and served as chairman of Bell Pottinger Sans Frontieres (BPSF), the international branch of the Bell Pottinger communications agency founded by Tim Bell. In 2005 he joined the consultancy Global Strategy Ltd.

Intelligence Online reports:

Now that Ahmed Chalabi is back in good odor in Washington, his lobbyists in the United Kingdom are paving the way for his return to London. Chalabi's prime adviser over the past five years, Claude Hankes Drielsma, has set up a consultancy, Global Strategy Ltd. in London. His two partners in the firm are Graham Barr, who was in charge of governmental relations at BP for 27 years, and Peter Anthony Inge, former chief of the defense staff in the United Kingdom. Incorporated in May of this year, Global Strategy is still dormant but it nonetheless seals an alliance between three men with experience in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq. A former merchant banker, Drielsma was head of the British branch of the German consultancy Roland Berger until last year. Along with Chalabi he had pressed actively in recent years for an inquiry into the United Nations oil for food program, buttonholing the American media and Congress on the issue...

For his part, Barr, who left BP in 2002, serves as chairman of Bell Pottinger Sans Frontieres (BPSF), the international branch of the Bell Pottinger communications agency founded by Tim Bell, former spokesman for Margaret Thatcher. BPSF has worked in Iraq since 2003. The firm was the main PR adviser to the interim Iraqi government and managed the campaign to prepare for elections in January of this year. Since then it has continued to advise the new Iraqi government.

Barr has now left Bell Pottinger Sans Frontieres, now Bell Pottinger Geopolitical, and is a founding partner of global consultancy Etoile Partners Ltd.

Education

• University of Cape Town
• Harvard Business School