Robert G. Clark is the United States Commissioner General heading up the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, on behalf of the U.S. State Department. (Although it kept "2020" in its title, the expo dates were moved to 2021 due to the pandemic.)
Jim Ogul is our world's fair specialist at InPark magazine. Jim literally wrote the book on US pavilions at world expos, because he oversaw the creation of those pavilions for most of his career with the US State Dept. He retired from the State Dept. but continues to work as a consultant and to write for InPark. I first got to know Jim in the 1990s when I was associate editor of World's Fair magazine, published by the late Alfred Heller.
When the Dubai expo opened, Jim reached out to Bob Clark for an interview - and as Clark is a St. Louisian, I joined the conversation to add some St. Louis specific questions.
In 1904 STL hosted a landmark world’s fair of its own, with a legacy still tangible. Prior to his diplomatic career, Clark was executive chairman of Clayco, a leading design-build company he founded in 1984 in St. Louis.
The theme of the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of the Future.”
In the interview, Clark said, "All world expos share something at the heart. They are about innovation, cultural shifts and changes, and the other dramatic human concepts that grow out of gathering in one large place – with all the nations joining to show that we can do more together than we can apart."
Click here to read the full interview published by InPark.
