Robin McLay

Robin McLay is a Senior Advisor with Fulbright Canada. Robin has served as a Senior Advisor across various roles and sectors including at Vancouver Island University overseeing Social Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, as well as the Executive Director of Social Innovation at the BC government.


Robin served as the Head of Research and Strategy at The MasterCard Foundation, as well as the Executive Director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development and worked for over a decade at Canada’s International Development Agency (CIDA) as its Director of Research and Director of Democratic Institutions and Conflict. With his work at CIDA, he represented the Agency’s participation at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and managed CIDA’s $6M Indigenous Peoples Partnership Program. Robin also served as Director of Harvard University’s Native American Program.

Robin McLay headshot photo

Robin pursued his graduate studies in Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a Fulbright Scholar and as a SSHRC Science Policy Scholar. He was also awarded a Aboriginal Achievement Scholarship from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. Robin holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from McGill University where he graduated with High Distinction and as a McGill University Scholar.

Robin is Metis, with strong family connections to the Lougheed family of Alberta. Robin serves as a mentor and advisor to the Obama inspired Mandela Scholars program (Young African Leaders Initiative). He volunteered at the Africa Center for Economic Transformation, one of Africa’s leading policy research think tanks based in Accra Ghana and Washington DC. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of Partnerships for Economic Policy, an international development think tank based in Nairobi, Kenya.

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