| Birth Name: | Robert Pickard |
| Birth Place: | Toronto, Canada |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Education: | Queen's University[1] |
Bob Pickard is a Canadian businessman known for his work in public relations. He was the former global communications director of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), where his departure became notable for his whistleblowing activity, explaining the influence of the Chinese Communist Party over the AIIB.
Before working in public relations, Pickard served as a political aide to several Canadian federal Cabinet ministers, including Joe Clark, who later became the 16th prime minister of Canada.[1] He was also a member of the Canadian delegation that participated in the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit.[1]
In public relations, Pickard managed the Asia-Pacific region of Burson-Marsteller,[2] Huntsworth,[3] and led the market entry of Edelman into Japan.[2] Pickard was the Vice President of Hill & Knowlton Canada and later co-founded Environics Communications in 1994.[2] He was recognized in the PR Week "Global Power Book", which lists influential communicators in the industry.[4]
In 2024, Pickard became a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald–Laurier Institute.[5]
In March 2022, Pickard became the Director General of Communications at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank and international financial institution, to lead its global communications strategy.[6] In June 2023, Pickard publicly resigned in protest over what he described as the undue influence of the Chinese Communist Party in AIIB’s everyday operations which he said constituted a failure of transparent governance and created a “toxic culture” inside the bank.[7] [8] [9] [10] Pickard ultimately fled China after his resignation.[6] The government of Canada froze its participation with the AIIB after Pickard's allegations and is conducting an extended review of the country’s membership in the bank in consultation with other G7 countries.[11]
An AIIB internal investigation claimed that it "follows the highest standards of multilateral governance, that its governance is functioning as intended, and that there was no evidence of undue influence on decisions taken by the Board of Directors or Management."[12] In front of a House of Commons of Canada committee on Canada-China relations later that year, Pickard testified that "so long as we have the Chinese Communist Party trying to work to undermine Western democracies...it is impossible" for the AIIB to be reformed.[8] [13]