Gilbert A Robinson

Ambassador Gilbert A. Robinson is Chairman of GAR Inc., an international firm advising companies on international trade, governmental relations and communications. The company has been operating since he left the State Department. From 1998-2003, he was also National Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Center for the Study of the Presidency with headquarters in Washington, DC. From 1983-1985, Ambassador Robinson served as Ambassador and Special Advisor for Public Diplomacy to Secretary of State George Shultz. In February 1981, President Reagan appointed him as Deputy Director of the United States Information Agency, and he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. Ambassador Robinson was a businessman in New York City for 20 years before he returned to government. He was Chairman of The Public Relations Board Inc., a major public relations firm. As Chairman of the New York Board of Trade, Ambassador Robinson led this country’s first business delegation to China for the development of new trade relationships. Earlier, he was a consultant to the Director of the Peace Corps and then Coordinator of the American National Exhibition in Moscow where he brought together Vice President Nixon and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the famous “Kitchen Debate.” Ambassador Robinson is Chairman of the Corporations to End World Hunger Foundation, Chairman Emeritus of the National Bible Association, Founding Chairman of the 21st Century Space Foundation, former President of the Reagan Alumni Association, and is a member of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, DC, the Gipsy Trail Club of New York and the Council of American Ambassadors. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. He served with the US Army on Adak in the Aleutian Islands. He attended Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia where he received a B.S. degree in economics.