Guise was born in 1943 and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, Durham University and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He worked for the Consolidated Gold Field Group from 1968-86 and was Head, Australian Section 1979-86, serving as an Executive Director on Main London Board and also the Australian Board. From 1986-90 he worked in the Prime Minister's Policy Unit advising the Prime Minister on commercial issues especially privatisation, science policy, arts policy, City Policy and, occasionally, South Africa. From 1990-2003 he held non executive positions with Deloitte and Touche, National Grid and advised various Governments on privatisation (Hungary, Poland, Czech Rep, South Africa, Turkey, Venezuela). He retired in 2003. He published an article on "Margaret Thatcher's influence on British science" in 'Notes and Records of the Royal Society', May 2014