“Business is not my life. My life is informed by the world of ideas. We have a great deal to learn from artists.”

A member of our Board of Governors since 2001, Robert helps boost NSCAD University’s profile overseas.

He has just one rule when it comes to buying art: “With every piece I buy, the artist has to be alive,” says the business executive, a Canadian living in London, England.

“I like to meet the artist. I try hard to buy art directly through the artist, or through the gallery that represents them. It keeps the machine going.”

Rob is a key figure in advancing the university's profile in European art circles, and his own impressive collection includes much work by Atlantic Canadian artists. He lived in Halifax during the late 1980s while working as Royal Trust's regional vice president, and during that time, he became a regular client of Studio 21 and other local galleries. Those same galleries helped fill corporate wallspace at his later postings in Winnipeg, Toronto, Zurich and London.

“My grandfather collected the Group of Seven, so I come by it naturally,” explains the Oxford graduate, who grew up in a household brimming with art.

While living in Halifax, Rob was asked to loan his collection to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for its Nova Scotia Collects series. He found it unsettling to have bare walls at home for six months – “if I wanted to see my own art, I had to go down to the gallery!”

Currently, Rob serves as Vice Chairman of CSS Stellar Holdings, a sports and entertainment marketing company with affiliates in Asia, Europe and North America, including Canada's GEM Marketing Group and ECHO Advertising. Rob is also a partner in Shadbolt Partners LLP, which is an investment management consultancy based on the partners' years of experience at AIM TRIMARK in Canada and INVESCO PERPETUAL in the United Kingdom. Rob served as CEO of both of these major investment management firms.

His successful career aside, he stresses “business is not my life. My life is informed by the world of ideas. We have a great deal to learn from artists.” It’s a foundation he’s instilling in his two teenage daughters as well, because “art enriches the human experience. It can decorate, inform, enable, enrich, reassure, lift the spirit, develop the spirit, show you a direction. It can be fun.”

It's a great time to study art, he adds, because the field is embarking on a "huge renaissance." The implications for NSCAD will be “absolutely immense – it’s poised at the very edge of an astonishing opportunity to take the world by storm,” he says, adding the university’s current plans for expansion make a lot of sense.

“What's needed today is a great step forward in art, design and craft education. Just like in any business, there will be consolidation and not every institution will survive, or thrive. There are maybe 25 world class institutions, that's it. Of all outfits, NSCAD is one of the best. That's why I want to be involved.”

The university is already highly regarded internationally as both an academic and technical leader, and Rob does all he can to promote this reputation overseas. At dinner one night in London, a pre-eminent designer lamented that he couldn’t find a loom of sufficient quality or size for a current project. Rob suggested he check out NSCAD’s computerized Jacquard loom, and sure enough, it suited his purposes.

Through his travels, Rob has found work by Atlantic Canadian artists in some of the best collections in the world. Art from the region is often deeply rooted in tradition and culture, but coupled with outstanding training it takes on a unique life of its own, he says.

“Though Nova Scotians never thought of themselves as particularly competitive in the art world, they certainly are now. It's going through one of those flowerings right now…But the nature of Nova Scotians is not to blow their own horn, unless they're in a band,” he says with a chuckle.

Rob is encouraging his niece to attend NSCAD, adding “I can’t think of many better places than Halifax to study art. I wouldn’t hesitate to live there again – in fact, I keep telling my wife that’s where we want to retire!”