ROBERT R. FOWLER joined the Department of External Affairs in 1969 and was posted to Paris in 1971 and to the Canadian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in 1976. In 1980, he was seconded to the Privy Council Office as assistant secretary to the Cabinet (Foreign and Defence Policy), where he served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Trudeau, Turner and Mulroney. In 1986, Mr. Fowler became assistant deputy minister (Policy) in the Department of National Defence and then served as deputy minister from 1989 to 1995. From 1995 to 2000, he was Canada’s longest-serving ambassador to the United Nations, following which he was named ambassador to Italy and also personal representative for Africa for Prime Ministers Chrétien and Harper. Fowler retired from the Canadian public service in 2006 and is a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He was appointed an Officer in the Order of Canada in November 2011. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Mary.