Gov. Haley Barbour
Advisor
Haley Barbour is Founding Partner of BGR Group, a bipartisan lobbying, strategic communications and business solutions practice. At BGR, he heads advocacy coalitions, lobbies on behalf of his clients and remains a major force in politics and elections. Governor Barbour serve two consecutive terms as Governor of Mississippi and as Chairman of Republican Governors Association, and as Reagan White House Political Director, Chairman of Republican National Committee.
More than 25 years in Republican leadership at the White House and at the federal and state levels, matched by nearly three decades in Washington lobbying. Maintains strong relationships with Republican leadership and governors from both parties.
During his tenure as governor, his team generated numerous large economic projects in the energy, aerospace and automotive fields, including the selection by Toyota of Blue Springs, Miss., for the company’s newest U.S. auto assembly plant, which was the most sought-after economic development project in the United States that year. Barbour led his state to adopt what the Wall Street Journal called the most comprehensive tort reform in the country. In Gov. Barbour’s eight years as governor, per capita income in the state increased by 34 percent.
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, Gov. Barbour received national recognition for his swift response to the worst natural disaster in American history. In 2015 he published America’s Great Storm: Leading Through Hurricane Katrina, a memoir of the year after the storm from the Governor’s perspective and lessons in leadership from the mega-disaster. For his efforts to rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast, he received the Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award. Other awards during his tenure as Governor included being named Governor of the Year by Governing Magazine, receiving the Gulf Guardian Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in recognition of his work to rebuild Gulf Coast ecosystems, and receiving the Adam Smith Award from BIPAC to honor his pursuit of the principles of free enterprise.
A native of Yazoo City, Miss., Gov. Barbour attended the University of Mississippi, where he received his JD in 1973. Governor Barbour resides in Yazoo City with his wife Marsha. They have two sons and seven grandchildren.