Steve - it occurred after his retainer by Muir Russell. At the time, he was retired from BP. He looks like he would have been well-qualified to serve on the oil spill inquiry.

I am a retired mechanical engineer and I spent my career working on pipeline design and offshore engineering. I retired from BP almost 5 years ago and continue to do a small amount of consulting.

I have had experience of ‘major incident’ enquiries, particularly in the process of co-ordinating work and compiling a report, which is the reason Muir approached me to assist with his enquiry.

I had no previous involvement or interest in any climate change matters.

Curiously David Walker was first mentioned at CA (in passing) in a post entitled BP and the Climategate Inquiry in which I expressed my surprise that David Eyton kept up his involvement with the Muir Russell inquiry given his important job at BP and past experience in the US Gulf Deepwater.

When, in response to Sep 11, 2010 criticism at CA, Lisa Williams later wanted the Muir Russell website to say that the omission of 08-31 from the list of FOI requests considered by the inquiry didn’t matter (even though this was untrue), she emailed Muir Russell and David Walker, adding the instruction to Walker:

David, please could you let me know when this has been actioned.
Best,
Lisa

When the Audit Commission’s former director of comms David Walker furiously claimed that the suggestion the body had as many as 48 comms staff was dug up from some ‘half remembered report’, PRWeek gladly corrected him that it was in fact provided by one of his own press officers. That seemed to be that, but then the dispute somehow leapt to the pages of The Sun, which dubbed the 48 staff ‘spin doctors’. ‘Comms staff are not “spin doctors”,’ a now-infuriated Walker hit back. Good luck convincing the tabloids on that one, Dave!

So doubt its him as he had another job until recently.

Slightly off topic, I was interested to read that “Pendragon’s Mike Granatt’s” PR expertise is in crisis management and communication: here and furthermore that he was recently appointed to the HoC STC as an adviser on emergencies (here), and declared as an interest his support for the ‘Independent’ climate change e-mail review. Clearly it is a small world, and a world in need of much support and crisis management.