Following college, he worked on the staffs of George V. Hansen and James A. McClure, who served in the U.S. Congress and Senate respectively, representing Idaho.[1] In 1990, when McClure left the Senate, Gerard followed him into the private sector, becoming part of the public relations firm McClure, Gerard & Neuenschwander.
In his role as head of API, Gerard fought successfully to allow crude oil exports. He also opposed increased taxes and other measures that would hurt industry profits.[3] Gerard expanded the organization's public outreach efforts to include the AFL–CIO and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, while trimming the number of API's employees and narrowing the scope of API's lobbying priorities.[4] He also led efforts to fund and support citizen rallies in support of API's legislative priorities, drawing accusations of astroturfing from critics after a leaked memo from Gerard to local API organizers was published by Greenpeace.[5][6]
In the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Gerard was a major backer of Mitt Romney's bid for president.[7]
In the LDS Church, Gerard has served as a ward mission leader, scoutmaster, Young Men advisor,[8]bishop, president of the McClean Virginia Stake, and area seventy in the church's North America Northeast Area (covering the US from Virginia north, and as far west as Indiana, and Canada from Ontario east) from 2010 to 2016.[9]
After becoming a general authority in the LDS Church, Gerard was appointed as the executive director of the Public Affairs Department. In July 2018, he spoke at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Annual Convention, announcing an educational and employment skills joint initiative between the LDS Church and the NAACP.[11][12] In this position, he was a key voice in the church's successful advocacy for the state of Utah to pass new laws regulating medical marijuana.[13]
Personal life
Gerard is married to Claudette Neff and they are the parents of eight children.[14]
^Dunlap, Riley E.; McCright, Aaron M. (2011). "Organized Climate Change Denial". In Dryzek, John S.; Norgaard, Richard B.; Schlosberg, David (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. OUP Oxford. p. 154. ISBN978-0-19-956660-0.