Robert is a dedicated business leader, teacher, and artist with over 25 years of experience instructing in professional and academic environments, creating in the theater and film/TV industries, and leading organizations in planning, developing, and executing strategies to serve diverse communities.
He is passionate about inspiring individuals through the transformative power of storytelling and art.
Robert identifies as he/him and mixed race (Asian/White).
Robert is first generation Asian-American and grew up in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains in East TN.
Since 2014, he has served as Executive Director of the award-winning non-profit NYC performing arts group The Barrow Group (TBG), overseeing the production of more than a dozen off-Broadway shows (three of which were NY Times Critics picks), growing TBG’s diversity scholarship program by 400%, and successfully running a $2M capital campaign relocating the company to a new 13,000 square-foot arts center in midtown Manhattan. Under his leadership, TBG’s operating budget has grown from $450,000 to $3,000,000, contributed revenue has increased by 833%, and TBG’s training programming has grown by 930%.
Previous to TBG, Robert worked at Shakespeare & Company in western Massachusetts, where he directed and produced over a dozen Shakespeare plays with their award-winning Education Program. Robert got his start professionally under the mentorship of Irene Worth and Bernard Gersten at Lincoln Center Theatre, where he was a Broadway Production Assistant.
Robert holds an M.B.A. in Strategic Management from the Lubin School of Business (Beta Gamma Sigma), an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University, and B.A. in English and Theatre from Vanderbilt University. Robert is also a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and serves on faculty at Pace University.