Kevin Doran

Kevin Doran used to be Director for European Affairs at public relations firm Bell Pottinger.

Background

Doran left Bell Pottinger in September 2011 to join public relations firm Grayling Brussels.¹

Political Ambitions

Doran was a North West Labour candidate for the May 2014 European Parliament elections,² but failed to make the final list.³

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

Whilst employed at Bell Pottinger, Doran worked on the Imperial Tobacco account.⁴
In 2011, when the impacts of revising the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) were being assessed, Bell Pottinger tried to secure Imperial Tobacco access to senior EU officials, including officials at the Secretariat General who oversaw EU Better Regulation and the Commission’s impact assessments.
In July 2011, Doran emailed a senior official at the Secretariat General suggesting that the revised TPD proposal “could lead to a further rise in counterfeit in Europe”, and that Imperial‘s Head of EU Affairs Istvan Komoroczki would like to discuss the matter further.
A copy of this email correspondence can be accessed here.
Doran wrote: “The issue deserves due consideration and an evidence-based rationale and I believe this meeting will help you and DG Secretariat General take a more informed position on the proposals – and the way they are being drawn up.”⁵
Doran’s request was declined.⁶

TobaccoTactics Resources

• EU Tobacco Products Directive Revision
• Bell Pottinger

TCRG Research

• The revision of the 2014 European tobacco products directive: an analysis of the tobacco industry’s attempts to ‘break the health silo’, S. Peeters, H. Costa, D. Stuckler, M. McKee, A.B. Gilmore, 2016, Tobacco Control; 25:108-117
• Quantifying the influence of tobacco industry on EU governance: automated content analysis of the EU Tobacco Products Directive, H. Costa, A.B. Gilmore, S. Peeters, M. McKee, D. Stuckler, 2014, Tobacco Control; 23:473-478