Bob Watts

Robert (Bob) Watts was recently named as the Interim Executive Director of the Canada’s first Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will examine and make recommendations with respect to the Indian Residential School era and its legacy. Most recently Bob served as the Chief of Staff to the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine, where he was a member of the team which negotiated the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class action settlement in Canada’s history. A former Assistant Deputy Minister for the Government of Canada, Bob is a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Fellow at the Harvard Law School where he researched and lectured on the role culture plays in conflict.
Bob is a senior associate with the Consensus Building Institute, Cambridge Mass. and has worked as a practitioner and trainer in both negotiations and conflict resolution. Bob is also a governor of the Ridgewood Foundation for Community Based Conflict Resolution, and is a Fellow at the European Institute for Community Based Conflict Resolution. Bob has taught, debated and lectured at a number of universities in Canada. Bob is married, has three wonderful daughters and four grandsons. Bob is from the Mohawk and Ojibway Nations and resides at Six Nations Reserve, Ontario.

www.trc-cvr.ca