Bob is Professor of Behavioural Decision Theory at Macquarie University and Director of the CommBank Diaries 2026 project. He is an internationally recognised scholar and has won many awards for his research, including the prestigious Jay Wright Forrester. Award for the Best Contribution in the Field of System Dynamics in the Preceding Five Years, with Shayne Gary He also has worked extensively with industry in consulting, advisory and board roles in Australia and overseas.

His previous roles include Founder and Director of the Centre for Ethical Leadership (UniMelb), where he developed and led the Vincent Fairfax Ethical Leadership program for senior executives for 10 years and the industry research collaboration, the Accelerated Learning Laboratory (UNSW). He has developed or co-developed several research based commercial products, including, Active Memory, a brain training app marketed by the ABC, and Cognicity Academy, a set of on-line measurement and training programs.

His research is conducted within the broad framework of social cognitive theory and is focused on issues of human adaptivity in a diverse range of areas, including problem solving, motivation, personality, leadership, and ethic decision making. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Expert Working Group for preparation of the report Transforming Learning and the Transmission of Knowledge; Preparing a Learning Society for the Future (2009) and Research Director for the Recruit Smarter research project for the Victorian government (2017 to 2018).

He is a Fellow of ASSA, IAAP, APA and ANZAM. Bob completed his PhD at the University of Washington and post-doctoral studies at Stanford University.