Robert studied oceanography and switched to software development in 1985. In 2002 he joined dpa, was head of the application engineering department and in 2013 he was appointed as managing director of dpa mediatechnology, a subsidiary of the German Press Agency dpa, and takes also the position of head of IT projects and software development. In 2006 Robert joined the IPTC community and in 2013 he became member of the board of directors.