IN AN effort to strengthen its links to the business community, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's office is adding a special adviser who will liaise with business.

Bruce Wolpe, a former communications director for Fairfax, owner of The Age, will join the Prime Minister's office as senior adviser from the beginning of March, speaking directly with the business community.

The office has poached Mr Wolpe from a high-profile job in Washington as senior staffer to veteran California congressman Henry Waxman, famous as one of the Democrats' chief inquisitors of the Bush administration over Iraq War intelligence and other controversies.

Mr Wolpe's role is a newly created one, The Age understands, and reflects the office's efforts to strengthen its links with business. Previously, individual advisers have forged connections with business in their respective areas.

US-born Mr Wolpe, who previously lived in Australia from 1991 until 2009, already knows Ms Gillard well and is understood to have strong connections in political, business and media circles. His wife, Dr Lesley Russell, is a former policy adviser to Ms Gillard.