Peter Sutherland - Business

Business

He is non-executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs International (a registered UK broker-dealer, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs). Until June 2009 he was non-executive chairman of BP being replaced by Carl-Henric Svanberg formely chief executive officer of Ericsson. Sutherland was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group until he was asked to leave the board when it had to be taken over by the UK government to avoid bankruptcy. He also formerly served on the board of ABB.

He is on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group, he is an Honorary Chairman of the Trilateral Commission (2010 -), he was Chairman of the Trilateral Commission (Europe) (2001–2010) and was vice chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists (2006–2009).

He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastrict) from 1991 to 1996. He is Honorary President of the European Movement Ireland.

He was appointed as a member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers in the years of 1998–2005.

He produced the Sutherland Report for the Portuguese Government on the handover of Macao to China in January 2000

He is President of the Federal Trust for Education and Research, a British think tank. He was Chairman of The Ireland Fund of Great Britain from 2001 to 2009, part of The Ireland Funds. He is a member of the advisory council of Business for New Europe, a British pro-European think-tank.

He was a member of the Commission on Human Security set up by the Japanese Government that reported to the United Nations in 2003.

In 2005, he was appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. In Spring 2006 he was appointed Chair of London School of Economics Council commencing in 2008.

Sutherland also serves on the International Advisory Board of IESE, the graduate business school of Spain's University of Navarra.

In January 2006, he was appointed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan as his Special Representative for Migration. In this position, he was responsible for promoting the establishment of a Global Forum on Migration and Development, a state-led effort open to all UN members that is meant to help governments better understand how migration can benefit their development goals. The Global Forum was acclaimed by UN Member States at the UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, in September 2006, and will be launched in Brussels in July 2007.

On 5 December 2006, he was appointed as Consultor of the Extraordinary Section of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (a financial adviser to the Vatican).

On 22 January 2010 he said while in Dublin that Ireland could not afford seven comprehensive top tier universities with research capabilities.

In September 2010 ahead of the Irish government budget for 2011, Sutherland said that the proposed €3bn of cuts in expenditure, “The figure of €3 billion has been postulated as the improvement to be sought in the next budget,” he said. “We are told that this is all that the political system can bear, but if all the mainstream political parties accept that more is required – although disagreeing perhaps about where to find the €3 billion – and are prepared to say it, we can find a way.” Sutherland said a default on State debts would leave the Government without the capacity to manage its affairs or raise finance. “It simply is not an option to choose,” he said.

Sutherland is also co-Chairman of the High Level Group appointed by the Governments of Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia and Turkey to report on the conclusion of the Doha Round and the future of multilateral trade negotiations. Report issued in May 2011.