Ambassador Gilbert A. Robinson (ret.) is Chairman of a GAR, Inc. an international firm advising Fortune 500 companies on international trade, government relations, and communications. In February 1981, President Reagan appointed him as Deputy Director of the United States Information Agency, whereby he was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.
He served as Ambassador and Special Advisor for Public Diplomacy to Secretary of State George Shultz and he was the National Director and COO of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. In New York City, Ambassador Robinson served as Chairman of the Public Relations Board, Inc., and in his voluntary job as Chairman of the New York Board of Trade, he led the first U.S. Business Delegation to China at the invitation of Premier Deng Xiaoping.
He was the Coordinator of the American National Exhibition in Moscow where he brought together Vice President Richard Nixon and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the famous “Kitchen Debate.”
Ambassador Robinson graduated with a B.S. Degree in Economics from Roanoke College, where he was later awarded the Roanoke College Medal. He is the author of Why I Like Ike, a collection of anecdotes about President Eisenhower and Reagan Remembered.