Episode 2: Bob Kayser

Bob Kayser is President of RHK Consulting Inc., providing consulting services for medical technology companies.

Bob’s board and volunteer positions focus on organizations supporting women, children, and health care. Additionally, Bob has served as Executive in Residence at the Ivey School of Business, and now mentors new generations of transformational leaders. Philanthropically, The Kayser Family Fund continues to support a variety of London-based charitable organizations.

Celebrating over 50 years with his wife Alexandra, they enjoy time with their children and 4 grandchildren.

Bob Kayser Episode 2 Audio Bob Kayser Episode 2 Transcript

Andrew Young: My name is Andrew Young. You may recognise me from the Internet. I love my life, my cats, my job and my community. I'm taking up your time today because on this journey of life, I've met wonderful people who make our city better. And I want you to meet them, too. This is Andrew Young's Fantastic Talks with Remarkable People.

AY: Community connector. Humble hero. Veteran volunteer. This man was one of the first community heroes I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. We've shared time over coffee and breakfast, charity events, and at his beautiful home. He has helped mould the way that I give back. He is nationally recognised as a community champion. I'm excited that I get to spend some more time with Bob Kayser.

AY: Bob, we first met in 2011 at the Kick-off Party for Engage London through the London Community Foundation. I understand you were the- one of the founding fathers, and had a lot of influence on the program. Can you tell me why you thought it was so important and, and your involvement in that?

Bob Kayser: Yeah, that's a good question, and one that was sort of a watershed time for us here in London. You know, we took a very circuitous route to getting here. Alexandra and I met in Montreal. My first job took me to Kingston, Ontario in 1966, and we moved 10 times in our marriage, the last four of which were international. And we chose London as our place to retire, to be close to children and grandchildren. And we began a sort of hyper payback period. Because of all of our moves, we'd never had a chance to really put down wide and deep roots that we knew we'd have to put down here. And so we started that in spades almost 20 years ago now. And so the opportunity of Engage London came about halfway through my retirement, when my vision of what we wanted to do in the community was pretty solid, and then it was an opportunity of passing that on to others like yourself.

AY: Well, I definitely appreciate that. Back in 2011, 2012, I didn't really have an idea of where to go. Not only did you help steward my involvement with the Engage program, but after that, you introduced me to Merrymount Children's Centre as well, where I was a board member for a number of years. So I appreciate that introduction as well.

BK: Yeah and in fact, it's always been a bit of a philosophy of mine to try to replace myself whenever I could-

AY: Right.

BK: -Inside the community organizations with which I worked, so I found it very important that you agreed to follow me there on the board, and that was something important to me.

AY: Right. There seems to be a theme of giving back to improve the lives of children. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Merrymount Childen's Centre, Boys and Girls Club. Why have you chosen these charities specifically?

BK: Yeah, we were encouraged back in ...