Charles Cobb

Biography: Chuck Cobb is the senior managing director and CEO of Cobb Partners, an investment firm, and the chairman of Cobb Family Foundation. Ambassador Cobb was previously the United States ambassador to the Republic of Iceland under President George H. W. Bush and was undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Reagan. During his 50-year community development career, Ambassador Cobb, as the CEO of Kaiser’s communities, Arvida Corporation, Walt Disney Development and Cobb Partners, has overseen the development of 50 large-scale communities including McCormick Ranch, Rancho California, Boca Resort and Club, Boca West, Sawgrass, Weston, Long Boat Key Club, Walt Disney World, Euro Disney, Cocoplum, Telluride, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Durango Mountain Resort and many others. He served as a member of The Walt Disney Board of Directors and its Executive Committee and served on the boards of eight other public companies and many private companies. Cobb is the past chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami and is a trustee or board member of his church and many other charitable and professional organizations including the Woodrow Wilson Center, Eisenhower Fellows, Council of American Ambassadors and the American Academy of Diplomacy. In 1960 he was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic team as a high hurdler and earlier served as an officer in the United States Navy. He was educated at Stanford University where he received a BA in economics in 1958 and an MBA in 1962. He has been married for 60 years to Ambassador Sue M. Cobb, a former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica and former secretary of state of Florida. The Cobbs have two sons and seven grandchildren.