Peter Roussel

With over 45 years of experience in business, government, politics, and media, Peter Roussel has held significant roles including two tours of duty in the White House and service as an assistant to Presidents Ford and Reagan. Now based in Houston, Texas, he is an author, public speaker, university instructor, and commentator on both television and radio.

From 1981 to 1987, Roussel served in the White House under President Reagan as special assistant and deputy press secretary. His responsibilities included briefing the White House press corps and accompanying President Reagan on domestic and foreign trips. Notable among these were summit meetings with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev at Geneva in 1985 and Iceland in 1986. Roussel also played a key role in the media relations for the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court during a visit to Phoenix, Arizona.

Roussel's career in Washington began in 1969 when he was appointed press secretary to U.S. Congressman George H.W. Bush. He followed Bush to the United Nations as his personal press officer in 1971 and returned with him to Washington in 1973 when Bush became Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Roussel first joined the White House staff in 1974 as an assistant to President Ford, later moving to the President Ford Committee and then serving as communications director for James A. Baker III’s 1978 campaign for Attorney General of Texas. In 1990, he was Communications Director for the Houston Economic Summit Host Committee.

Currently, Roussel is a television commentator for KTRK-TV, the ABC-TV affiliate station in Houston, and an on-air commentator for Newsradio KTRH. He authored the novel "Ruffled Flourishes" (2009), which draws from his White House experiences, and has written for prominent publications including the New York Times and Washington Post. His career in public relations and advertising started in 1966, and from 1996 to 2003, he was Executive Vice President and managing partner of Neumann Roussel Public Relations. Additionally, from 2004 to 2008, he was a columnist and editor for Intown magazine.

Roussel holds a degree from the University of Houston, where he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1983 and received the first Distinguished Communications Alumnus Award in 1986. In 2009, he was appointed to the Warner Chair of Journalism at Sam Houston State University's Department of Mass Communication.