Fort York Foundation has a new Executive Director

Robert W. Bell is the new ED of the Fort York Foundation, the fundraising sibling of The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common that was instrumental in the creation of the Visitor Centre. He replaces Susan Perren, the faithful and talented ED since 2013. Now retired, she’ll be an advisor to the foundation and her successor.

Robert comes to the foundation from the Royal Bank of Canada, where he was most recently Assistant General Counsel and Legal Knowledge Officer and, previously, Vice President, Law, of RBC Insurance. Robert is an active watercolourist with a long-standing interest in art history. He’s also from a long line of the historically inclined: his father, grandfather and great-grandfather (no less!) were all presidents of the Champlain Society – whose volumes are cited regularly in the pages of the F&D (including this one). He served on the committee for the tour of the Magna Carta across Canada in 2015, which included a well-attended appearance at the Fort York Visitor Centre.

Robert will also be helping The Friends as they support programming and activity at the fort. He brings experienced oversight to the management of both volunteer organizations – and that means our support of Fort York National Historic Site has been strengthened. Robert Bell can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.