Robert Castro

Bob returned to the NGO/corporate innovation sector after most recent government service as Senior Advisor at USAID & the Secretary of State's Office of Global Partnerships. He currently serves on the Advisory Boards for The World Innovation Network (TWINglobal.org), the NourishMovement.org, and AyadeeFoundation.org. Bob has spent most of the last 2 decades helping socially impactful enterprises, focused on new market development, innovation, entrepreneurship & corporate engagement in Diplomacy and Development, living in and working from Latin America, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the GCC regions. Previously Chief of Staff, with rank of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, at the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), Bob also served 10 years on Capitol Hill as legislative director and professional staff for members of appropriations and authorizing/oversight committees and the Technology Assessment Board (OTA). He was managing VP of a public opinion & market research firm and Director of Global Security Policy at Lockheed Martin, with BD roles at PAE (then a LM subsidiary). He has also been a consultant to the World Health Organization of the United Nations and is currently an advisor to the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and its NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health. As a Foreign Service spouse, Bob won the 2016 AAFSW/Secretary of State Award (SOSA) & 2013 DACOR/Tragen prize for founding PROPS: Professional Partners & Spouses of the Foreign Service, a peer-to-peer network of over 400 members. He is devoted to Public Diplomacy through Sports and the Arts and has had volunteer roles on the host committees for multiple FIFA World Cups and the Olympics movement.