Bob, Vice President Research, is a former Assistant Deputy Minister in the Federal government has over 35 years of experience leading the strategic policy development, planning and delivery of broad based science programs at the federal and international level. Bob has also held senior executive positions at Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Agriculture Canada. He completed a three-year assignment as Visiting Professor of Epidemiology and Community medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and was also Executive Director of the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment at the Institute of Population Health. He has previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of VIDO-InterVac Saskatoon, member of the Board of Scientific Counsellors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, member of the Advisory Board for the Institute of Infection and Immunity at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, member of the Advisory Board for the Caribbean Public Health Agency and on the Board of Directors of PRIONET Canada.

Bob obtained both his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (1976) and a PhD in Vaccine Research (1985) at the University of Guelph, after completing a B.Sc. in Biology at Carleton University in 1972. He also completed the exotic animal disease course at Plum Island, New York and advanced bacterial genetics at Cold Spring Harbor, New York.