In 1984 at age 34 Peter Sutherland was the youngest Attorney General of Ireland, He was appointed to the European Commission in 1985 where he was the youngest ever European Commissioner. He was Director General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now the World Trade Organisation). The US Trade Minister credited him with being the father of globalization and said that without him there would have been no WTO.

He is non-executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He was previously non-executive chairman of BP and was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group until he was asked to leave the board when it had to be taken over by the UK government to avoid bankruptcy. He also formerly served on the board of ABB, one of the largest engineering companies as well as one of the largest conglomerates in the world..

He is on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group, a chairman of the Trilateral Commission and vice chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists.