Buford authored Halftime (1995), a best selling book on how to find meaning and fulfillment in the second half of our lives. He followed in 1997 with a companion "how-to" book Game Plan. Buford’s third book, Stuck in Halftime: Reinvesting Your One and Only Life, was released in April 2001. His books have sold more than quarter of a million copies.

Buford is active in a number of high profile non-profit activities. In 1988, Buford helped found The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management to encourage leading social sector organizations toward excellence in performance. Under his guidance as Founding Chair, The Drucker Foundation, through its conferences, publications and partnerships, helps social sector organizations focus on their mission, achieve true accountability, leverage innovation, and develop productive partnerships. Buford also serves as the co-chair of the Drucker Archives and Institute, an organization at Claremont Graduate University to preserve the writings and management ideas of Peter Drucker for the future leaders of business and nonprofit organizations. Its first Executive Director is Nan Stone, former editor of the Harvard Business Review.

Buford is also active using his entrepreneurial bent and Christian faith to ignite the latent energy of American Christianity. He started The Leadership Network to be a resource broker that supplies information to and connects leaders of innovative churches. Leadership Network serves the leadership teams of churches at all levels and in all jurisdictions. As a follow-up to The Leadership Network, Buford founded the Leadership Training Network to identify, train, and provide an ongoing peer-coaching network for leaders of lay mobilization in local congregations.

In 1998, Bob launched FaithWorks to equip business/professional leaders to achieve maximum leverage and return on the investment of their time and resources measured in changed lives and healthier communities. FaithWorks is taking on the challenge of joining two distinct cultures - those of the business/professional leaders and the nonprofit leaders - in partnerships at the local community level where the business/professional leader sees and touches the lives of the recipients the partnership services.

Bob is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and of the Owner Managed Program at the Harvard Business School. He played active roles in Young Presidents’ Organization and World Presidents’ Organization and serves on the board of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard.