Throughout his career, Robert has been involved in forming, reconstructing and growing  businesses around collaboration, relationships in leadership teams, and jointly conceiving change and development strategies.

Robert has considerable experience as a CEO, focusing on business transformation, growth, acquisitions, mergers and change management. Born and educated in Glasgow, Scotland, Robert joined the international publishing firm of William Collins, now part of HarperCollins within News Corporation. As a management trainee, he graduated from the Institute of Marketing in London and later attended Strathclyde University Business School. Transferred by the Collins Group to Johannesburg in the 1970s, Robert drove the growth and modernisation of their regional interests, leading to his appointment as Managing Director – Southern Africa. In the mid-1980s, Robert turned round a similar operation in New Zealand, and after three years went on to the UK to create a new division as MD of HarperCollins Cartographic with responsibility for publishing world-leading digital maps and atlases. In 1993, Robert was invited by Pearson plc to become MD of their educational companies in Australia and New Zealand, then known as Longman. He was also appointed a Director of Penguin Books in both Australia and New Zealand and later a Director of the Australian Publishers Association and Copyright Agency Limited. More recently Robert was Managing Director of The Ink Group in Australia and New Zealand, integrating the Company into American Greetings, after which he was CEO of the family-owned Collins Booksellers group in Australia.

Robert enjoys travel, music, photography, reading and volunteering with Rotary International. He is married to Myra, a teacher from Scotland, and together they have proudly brought up their two professional daughters who have thrived on the rigours of moving around the world.