Robert C. Bobb is the owner, President, and CEO of The LAPA Group. He has over 40 years of executive management experience and a nationwide reputation for helping governments, local communities, schools, real estate professionals, and businesses achieve financial and operational solutions, greater efficiency, and long-term viability. He provides expertise on the issues facing urban governments, including economic and real estate development, community and neighborhood development, municipal budget and financial management, effective contract negotiation, and educational reform.

 

Throughout his career, Robert has collaborated closely with real estate developers and professionals to revitalize communities. He is widely regarded as the leading expert in public-private partnership negotiations for local real estate projects in major cities across the country. Robert's professional experiences enable him to understand the challenges that both governments and real estate executives encounter when working together on projects aimed at improving communities and stimulating economic growth.

 

Robert is the President and CEO of the Robert Bobb Group LLC, which specializes in public sector turnaround consulting and advisory services including economic development, financial and budgeting consultation, contract negotiation advisory, and restructuring. He served as Emergency Financial Manager of the 87,000-student Detroit Public Schools (DPS) from March 2009 through May 2011. Robert was appointed Emergency Financial Manager for DPS by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, which was extended by her successor, Gov. Rick Snyder.

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He was elected city-wide as the President of the Washington, DC Board of Education in November 2006 and served as the President of both the Washington, D.C. Board of Education and the Washington, D.C. State Board of Education.  He is the former City Administrator and Deputy Mayor for Washington, D.C., and served as the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security Advisor. He managed a workforce of approximately 20,000 employees and an annual budget of $8 billion dollars. He served as the City Manager of Oakland, California and Executive Director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, City Manager of Richmond, Virginia, City Manager of Santa Ana, California, and City Manager of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He holds the distinction of having served continuously as the longest-tenured African-American City Manager/City Administrator in the nation. Additionally, Robert served for 10 years on the City of Richmond, Virginia's Planning Commission.

 

His career recognitions include the prestigious International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) L. P. Cookingham Award for Career Development and four ICMA Innovation Awards. He also earned the National Forum for Black Public Administrator’s (NFBPA) Marks of Excellence Award and is a former President of the NFBPA. By proclamation, former California Governor Gray Davis declared April 11, 2001, “Robert C. Bobb Day” in that state. In September 1993, City & State Magazine, a periodical for city and state government officials, named him the “Most Valuable Public Official” among professional managers of the country’s local governments.

 

An avid sportsman, he is also an ardent supporter and patron of the arts, and a pro-active champion for civil rights. He finds time in his busy schedule to mentor urban youth and young professionals and served as a volunteer tutor in the DPS Reading Corps. Under his direction, several successful outreach programs were designed and administered to foster urban youth in civic responsibility, educational achievement, and competitiveness in the employment market. Notably, more than 19 of his former assistants have advanced to make their own contributions as city managers, county executives, public safety directors, head of a public utility, deputy mayor, and assistant city managers.

 

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, and a Master of Science in Business from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He completed the certificate program for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a member of the Executive Alumni Council.  He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Walsh College.

He is a Fellow of the 2005 Broad Foundation Urban Schools Superintendents Academy, Founding President of the City of Oakland, California African American Chamber of Commerce,

 

Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, member of the ICMA, Fellow of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary, and former member of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute.