Peter R. Harris

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For other people with the same name, see Peter Harris.

Peter R. Harris was formerly the CEO of the UK and Ireland, Middle East and Africa division of Compass Group before being dismissed in October 2005 for "improper conduct" in relation to practices with the United Nations procurement department. Although no documentation suggests any link between Compass Group or its subsidiary ESS (sometimes referred to as Eurest or Eurest Support Services, or even ESS Support Services Worldwide) to the Oil-for-Food Programme scandal, Fox News in particular alleged questionable conduct by Harris.

Fox News has been the most aggressive media outlet in pursing the alleged corruption by Compass Group. They have reproduced a number of internal ESS documents which demonstrate possible illicit behavior on the part of ESS executives, U.N. officials and brokers.

In March 2006, Compass competitor Switzerland-based Supreme Foodservices AG filed a complaint/writ in the US District Court Southern District of New York in relation to the allegations, although no additional information other than that previously published by Fox News appeared in the claim. Harris is named amongst the defendants. Another suit was then filed by another Compass competitor Es-Ko citing specificallty the possible involvement of Compass Group's CEO Michael Bailey.

A Corporate Governance issue for the Compass Group is why Peter R. Harris was promoted to the position of CEO of UK and Ireland division as the U.N. procurement scandal was discovered, to be fired a few weeks after when the scandal became news.

Prior to being sacked, Harris led ESS in a number of successful business deals. Among these have been contracts with BP for integrated facility management services in the Americas and Caribbean in 2005 and with ChevronTexaco for catering and facilities management worldwide in 2002 for ten years. Harris was also quoted as being rugby fan offering ESS/Compass support to rugby sevens teams, including the Compass-sponsored Middlesex 7s tournament.

Harris worked in South Africa for ten years. He met his wife there and had three children in the country. In 2004 the Compass Group South Africa website said that he planned to retire there.

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