Peter Roussel

A native Texan, Peter Roussel began his career in 1969 as Press Secretary to then U.S. Congressman George H. W. Bush. When Mr. Bush subsequently served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973) and Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974), Mr. Roussel was his Personal Press Officer.

Mr. Roussel went on to serve two tours of duty in the White House. First,as a Staff Assistant to President Ford (1974-1976) and as a Special Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary to President Reagan (1981-1987).

In 1976 he served as as special assistant to President Ford's national campaign director, James A. Baker, III. Subsequently, Mr. Roussel was communications director for Mr. Baker's 1978 campaign for Attorney General of Texas.

Mr. Roussel's duties as a spokesman for President Reagan included briefings of the White House press corps and accompanying President Reagan on domestic and foreign trips, including summit meetings with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev at Geneva in 1985 and in Iceland in 1986. On his very first day in the Reagan White House, Mr. Roussel was assigned to handle media relations for the historic appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor as Justice to the Supreme Court.

Peter Roussel is now a strategic communications consultant, public speaker, magazine editor/columnist and television-radio commentator based in Houston, Texas. He writes a column, The Last Word, for the monthly magazine, Intown, for which he also serves as editor.

He is the author of the White House-based novel, Ruffled Flourishes (Eakin Press), a satire based on the daily taffy pull for information that occurs between reporters covering the White House and a presidential spokesman. Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association, has said: "It's a superior piece of work, reeking of authenticity."

Mr. Roussel has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Houston, Houston Baptist University and Texas A&M University, where he taught a course based on his firsthand experiences as a White House spokesman and the press-presidency process.

After attending St. John's School in Houston, Texas, he graduated in 1965 from the University of Houston where he was honored in 1983 as a Distinguished Alumnus. In 1986 he was selected as the recipient of the first Distinguished Communications Alumnus Award presented by that university.