Robert Wright

Rob Wright served as Canadian Ambassador to China from 2005-2009. He also served as Canadian Ambassador to Japan from 2001 to 2005. From 1995-2001 he was Canadian Deputy-Minister for International Trade and Associate Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Over the course of his 38-year career in public service he held a range of other positions including, Deputy-Head of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., Director General responsible for Canada-U.S. relations and Deputy-Head of the Canadian delegation to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. He served on the Canadian delegations to both the Tokyo Round and Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.

He retired from public service in 2009. Since that time he has been a commentator on foreign and trade policy, particularly relating to China and Japan. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and is a Senior Fellow at the China Institute of the University of Alberta.
He lives in Ottawa and Chelsea, Quebec.