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Robert currently leads the Innovation & Change Management Division within the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest provider of humanitarian food assistance with a budget of US$5 billion per year and 15,000 staff members in over 80 countries.
In this role, he works to harness the power of innovations to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including ending hunger by 2030. Under his leadership, WFP has established an in-house 'Zero Hunger' Innovation Accelerator with an operating budget of over $5 million per year and created the award-winning crowdfunding smartphone app "ShareTheMeal" that has raised over $6 million for children in need to date.
Robert also leads efforts to make the organization more effective by supporting the implementation of key change initiatives and reforms across WFP. He serves as a member of WFP's Executive Management Group, the highest level formal decision-making body in the organization.
Robert began his career at Canada's International Development Research Centre managing projects focused on peacebuilding in post-conflict countries. He served in WFP in the organization's Angola operation, managing emergency food aid assistance programmes within a $260 million operation that reached over 1 million internally displaced persons affected by civil war; and as Chief of Policy and Administration within the Executive Director's office in Rome. He was also a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) based in Singapore where he served a wide range of private sector companies throughout Asia and the Middle East.
Robert holds an M.A. in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University and a B.A. in History from the University of Alberta, as well as a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from the Université de Genève.
