Rudi Guraziu

IBDE is headed by Rudi Guraziu who has extensive experience in the worlds of business and diplomacy. Rudi is responsible for overall strategy development, fundraising and relationship with stakeholders. He is also in charge of IBDE’s delivery of programmes and services, team management, administration and financial issues. He is supported by the IBDE’s Management & Advisory Boards made up of senior business leaders, policymakers, ambassadors, and experts from relevant fields.
In addition to his role at IBDE, Rudi is a Visiting Professor and Module Leader at LAD, University of Stirling, where he teaches international business, international political economy and trade, commercial and economic diplomacy.
Rudi spent the 1990s as a principal of a pharmaceutical business. Before founding IBDE, he founded the Centre for Business and Parliamentary Dialogue, offering his experience and expertise pro bono in emulating the Industry and Parliament Trust concept, internationally. For much of that time he was engaged with different parliaments particularly in the relationship between legislative bodies and economic operators.
For many years, Rudi has been actively engaged with senior policy-makers, business leaders and diplomats as an expert on international affairs, including as an external expert at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office high-level “policy challenge” sessions. His expertise covers trade & investment promotion, international affairs with a particular focus on strategic policy, EU affairs, financial services regulation, energy security, public policy, political risk, international business, international trade, economic, corporate and commercial diplomacy. His research interests are in exploring the impact of international events and turning crises into opportunities. Following the recent financial crisis, Rudi led IBDE to the launch of the first international programme on responsible banking and finance which came to be supported by most senior industry practitioners, regulators and policymakers.
Rudi is a member of the International Steering Board at the International Festival for Business, and has played a key role since the launch of IFB in 2013 both in his personal capacity as member of the International Steering Board and through IBDE having hosted a number of high-level international events, exploring finance for corporates and SMEs, international banking, and global trade & investment promotion.
Rudi serves on the advisory boards of a number of companies. Rudi is a UK National and has previously worked and lived in the Balkans and Switzerland.