Peter Mandelson was EU Commissioner for Trade and was the UK's Deputy Prime Minister under Gordon Brown.
He was appointed to the UK Government as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1998, where he was responsible for the introduction of the National Minimum Wage and overseeing new measures to strengthen regional development through the creation of Regional Development Agencies. During his tenure, he also published the Government’s Competitiveness White Paper "Building the Knowledge-Driven Economy".
In 1999 he was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Between 1999 and 2001 he negotiated the creation of Northern Ireland’s power sharing government and the IRA’s announcement that they planned to put their arms beyond use. He also introduced the radical overhaul of the police service in Northern Ireland.
He was EU Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008, and in 2009 was appointed UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. In 2009, following the creation of the new Department, Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), he was also appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
In 2010, he became chairman of the consultancy firm Global Counsel, in 2011 he was appointed a Senior Adviser to the advisory investment banking firm, Lazard, which he now chairs since late 2012. He is also president of Policy Network, an international think tank.
