A veteran of the US Navy, Robert “Buddy” Costley is a retired Georgia school superintendent after serving for 11 years in that role from 2008-2019. In November of 2023, he was listed by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of Georgia’s 500 Most Influential Leaders.

In December of 2023, Buddy retired from public service after completing over four years leading through the pandemic and beyond as the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL), the professional association for Georgia’s school and district public school administrators. 

Today, he is the CEO and Co-Founder of SchoolDog Solutions, Inc., a software company built on the mission of making every K-12 school across the nation a safer and healthier place to learn and work. His inspiration and passion for school safety are his wife Kelly, a K-12 educator, and his three children (one of whom is a middle school science teacher) and three grandchildren.