Robert "Rob" L. Gordon III
Business Advisor
Robert “Rob” L. Gordon III is the Chief Global Officer of Connected Living, a services and technology company that provides a “high tech and high touch” way for families and company employees to connect, access goods and services and enhance quality of life. He is the former President of Be the Change, Inc. a social impact organization that creates and manages national issue-based campaigns to drive broad cross-sector coalitions to scale positive social change in American society. Previously, he was a senior executive at APX Labs, a high tech smart glasses software company.
In 2010 Rob was appointed in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy, where he was responsible for defense-wide policy, program execution and oversight of the Defense Department’s worldwide community and family programs and initiatives affecting over four million military active duty service and family members, and two million retirees. Rob spearheaded the creation of DoD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership, an online employment initiative currently boasting more than 200 Fortune 500+ employment partners who have provided jobs to more than 125,000 military spouses since the program’s inception in 2011. Before joining the Obama administration, Rob was the Senior Vice President and Chief People and Program Officer at City Year.
Rob, an airborne ranger and a retired Army Colonel, completed a 26-year career in the military. He served as an artillery officer, aide-de-camp to General Colin Powell, and head of American Politics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. As a White House Fellow from 1992 – 1993, he served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Bush Administration; and as the Director of Special Operations, Office of National Service, The White House in the Clinton Administration.
Rob earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University. He is a part of the French American Foundation Young Leader program; the recipient of the Bernard Gill Urban Service-Learning Leadership Award from the National Youth Leadership Council; Princeton University’s Edward P. Bullard Distinguished Alumnus Award; two awards of the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara; the Department of Defense Outstanding Public Service Award; and was the 2017 recipient of the Franklin Award by the National Council on Citizenship.
