Robert (Bobby) Pembleton is deeply committed to helping ensure the work at the Edinburgh Futures Institute has demonstrable and visible ethical, social, cultural, economic and environmental impact. He contributes to strategy, planning and delivery of a wide range of engagement & innovation activity, especially on opportunities related to sustainability, innovation, futures, travel, tourism, festivals & the creative industries. This work includes convening communities, designing and scaling service models, change management, programme management, and facilitating multi-stakeholder engagements. He enthusiastically seeks to understand and communicate the amazing things that do and could happen across many areas of the Futures Institute.
He is a leader and changemaker with a varied career. He has been a stage manager, political satire newspaper publisher, founder of a vegan restaurant and punk venue, and taught English abroad on four continents. He has worked at the university since 2017, where he contributed to events management at the Edinburgh College of Art before working for 5 years on the student enterprise team, where he planned and delivered enterprise education engagements and supported emerging organisations to focus on social and environmental impact. He has been nominated as a Scottish Institute for Enterprise ‘Imaginative Educator’ and received a University of Edinburgh Social Responsibility and Sustainability Changemaker award in 2022.
