David S. Muir (born 4 January 1971) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

marketing and political communications professional. He was Director of Political Strategy for

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

between 2008 and 2010.

Biography

Muir was born in Falkirk and attended his local comprehensive Falkirk High School. In 1988 attended the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. In 1992 he graduated with a MA Hons 1st Class in Politics and Economics. He also won the Alistair Reid Prize for Politics for the outstanding study of politics and an ESU Scholarship to work with the US politician

Byron Dorgan Byron Leslie Dorgan (born May 14, 1942) is an American author, businessman and former politician who served as a United States House of Representatives, United States Representative (1981–1992) and United States Senate, United States Senator (1 ...

. He later graduated from

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

Career

In 1992 Muir joined the advertising agency

Ogilvy & Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

, becoming New Business Director until taking a leave of absence to complete his MBA in 1999. In 2001 he returned to Ogilvy where he focussed on expanding the group through organic growth and acquisitions. In 2003 he wrote with Jon Miller ''The Business of Brands'', looking at how businesses could nurture and value their brands. In 2005 he moved over to WPP to take over "The Channel" from Mandy Pooler. There he helped develop WPP's research tool Brandz where he developed the BrandZ Top 100. While at The Channel he also developed Sportz which allows global brands to evaluate sponsorship opportunities.

Downing Street

In 2008 Muir left WPP to become the British prime minister,

's, Director of Political Strategy, replacing Spencer Livermore who had left At Downing Street Muir was the Prime Ministers leading political adviser after Stephen Carter left. He along with Kirsty McNeill developed Brown's "No time for a novice speech" at the 2008 Labour Party Conference which was "warmly received". Muir worked closely with

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, (born 21 October 1953) is a British politician, lobbyist and diplomat who has served as British Ambassador to the United States since February 2025. A member of the Labour Party, Mandelson serve ...

and

Philip Gould Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularized the n ...

on the Labour Party's 2010 general election campaign. He was the lead negotiator of the historic British TV Election Debates and was an early proponent of them. He is believed to have argued for a hard edged attack on the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

and their threat to middle income earners. In particular he pushed for the campaign to focus on the threat the Conservative's posed to child tax credits. It is also believed that he supported Gordon Brown's decision not to serve a full term. The campaign denied the Conservatives an overall majority and Muir was part of small team that spent the next five days in discussions with the Liberal Democrats. Muir left Downing Street when Gordon Brown resigned in May 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, David S. 1971 births Alumni of London Business School Alumni of the University of Glasgow Living people British marketing people Political communication Labour Party (UK) officials