Blair takes role at hedge fund Lansdowne

Middle East envoy Tony Blair speaks at the Global Competitiveness Conference, an annual gathering of Saudi and world businessmen, in Riyadh January 25, 2010.

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to give a series of talks to bosses at Lansdowne Partners, said a source close to the secretive hedge fund that made millions from the credit crisis.

Blair, whose "light-touch" model of regulation of the financial industry was later criticised for helping cause the credit crunch, will give a small number of talks on geopolitics to executives of the firm, the source said.

The former Labour leader's appointment is surprising, given that Lansdowne co-founder Paul Ruddock and fund manager David Craigen are both big donors to the Conservative Party, which looks set to win this year's election.

Blair is not taking on an advisory role at Lansdowne Partners, the source said.

Lansdowne made millions of pounds shorting -- betting on a lower price -- stocks such as Barclays (BARC.L) and Anglo Irish Bank AGIBY.PK during the crisis and then subsequently buying back into financials near the bottom of the market.

As at June 2009 it ran $11.9 billion (7.34 billion pounds) in assets, making it Europe's fourth-largest hedge fund firm, according to EuroHedge data.

A number of hedge fund firms have hired well-known politicians or bankers to help them better understand different aspects of politics or investment.

Last month, London-based hedge fund firm GLG Partners GLG.N said it had hired John Gieve, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, to give more insight into monetary policy and government plans to regulate the industry.

(Editing by Rupert Winchester) (To read the Reuters Hedge Fund Blog click on blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub; for the Global Investing Blog click here)