Robert C. Gay
Robert Christopher Gay is a retired business executive and philanthropist. He is also an emeritus General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gay was born on September 1, 1951, in Los Angeles, California, to Frank William “Bill” Gay and Mary Elizabeth Thain Gay. His father oversaw several entities for business tycoon Howard Hughes.
Gay served as a mIssionary in Spain for the Church of Jesus Christ. In 1976, he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics with an emphasis in statistics from the University of Utah. In 1982, he received a PhD in business economics from Harvard University.
During his career, Gay co-founded Unitus (now Unitus Labs). He was co-founder, CEO, and managing director of Huntsman Gay Global Capital. He was also principal and managing director at Bain Capital and executive vice president of General Electric Credit Corporation Capital Markets Group. He served as vice president in the Merchant Banking Group at Kidder Peabody and as engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm.
He co-founded the Brigham Young University Center for Economic Self Reliance, now called the Melvin J. Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance, which works to relieve poverty and provide humanitarian aid in developing countries. He has served as an advisor and on the board of trustees for the Forever Young Foundation. He has also served as an advisory board member of Ascent (a humanitarian alliance) and is the founder of the Komart Foundation in Ghana that seeks to help children.
He was sustained a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on March 31, 2012. He has also served as a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy and as president of the Ghana Accra Mission. In September 2012 he was named the head of the Perpetual Education Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Gay was sustained a member of the Presidency of the Seventy on March 31, 2018. His release from that assignment effective August 1, 2021, was announced at General Conference on April 3, 2021. He continued to serve as a General Authority Seventy until he was released and granted emeritus status during the 191st Semiannual General Conference (October 2021).
He and his wife, Lynette, are the parents of seven children.
