Jim MurrayJim Murray was the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trade in Ireland from 1979 to 1990, responsible, inter alia, for the implementation of a wide range of consumer protection and competition laws, including laws on misleading advertising, food labelling, product safety and restrictive business practices.
Prior to that he was, for seven years, the Director of the National Social Service Council (now the National Social Service Board), a public organisation which pioneered the development of a network of voluntary community information centres in Ireland.
His first job was as an engineer/manager in the Irish telephone administration (Department of Posts and Telegraphs).
Mr Murray is a qualified lawyer (Barrister at Law) and has a degree in Physics and Mathematics. He is also the holder of a Post Graduate Diploma in European Law.
In June 1990, Mr Murray took up the post of Director of BEUC, the Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs. BEUC is a Brussels-based organisation representing the independent consumer associations from the fifteen Member States of the EU and elsewhere in Europe. The primary task of BEUC is to promote the interests of the consumer at all levels of the EU, to act as a strong consumer voice in Brussels and to try to ensure that the interests of the consumers are given their proper weight in the development of all Community policies. BEUC seeks to influence all EU policies which may affect consumers including policies relating to food, agriculture, environment, competition, single market, trade, financial services, legal interests, health, safety etc.