Robert Asselin is a recognized expert on innovation, economic growth, and industrial strategy with extensive experience in senior roles within government as well as in academia.
He is currently CEO of U15 Canada, an association of fifteen research universities across Canada, dedicated to advancing research and innovation, and developing highly-qualified leaders for the benefit of Canadians. Prior to this role, he served as Senior Vice President, Policy at the Business Council of Canada where he led the Council’s work on economic and fiscal policy.
Asselin brings over a decade of experience advising at the highest levels of government, having served as Policy and Budget Director to Canada’s Minister of Finance and as a senior advisor to two Prime Ministers. In addition, he spent nearly a decade in academia, notably as Associate Director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and as Visiting Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the advisory board of the U.S. Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
