Peter Mandelson Keynote Speaker

Lord Peter Mandelson is Co-founder and Chairman of Global Counsel.   He is also a member of the International Advisory Committee of BlueVoyant, a cyber security company and member of the Group Holding Board of The Bank of London. He is President of the Great Britain China Centre and Governor and Member of the Council of Management at the Ditchley Foundation. Peter is Chairman of the Design Museum in London and Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University.

Peter  is a former European Trade Commissioner and British First Secretary of State. As Trade Commissioner between 2004 and 2008, he negotiated trade agreements with many countries and led European negotiations in the WTO Doha World Trade Round.

Earlier in his political career, he held a number of Cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown including Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Northern Ireland Secretary and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was Member of Parliament in the UK from 1992 until 2004 and Director of Campaigns and Communications for the Labour Party between 1985 and 1990. He was regarded a key architect in the re-branding of the British Labour Party as “New Labour” and its subsequent landslide victory in the 1997 general election. He joined the House of Lords in 2008.

In 2010 Peter published his best selling memoirs, “The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour“.