Howard Rotberg was born and raised in Brantford Ontario, and educated at the University of Toronto where he received degrees in both History and Law.

Mr. Rotberg practiced corporate and real estate law for 20 years in Kitchener Ontario. While living in Kitchener he served as President of Beth Jacob Synagogue. He also began a writing career working in a variety of magazines, such as Cross Cultures and Exchange Magazine. He also became a frequent contributor to the Insight page of the Kitchener Record newspaper, writing historical background pieces to current issues relating to Israel, the Jewish community and war crimes issues.

He developed a special interest in the issue of compensation for Nazi era slave labour and authored and maintained an internet site devoted to the slave labour issue. This site was discontinued after the American and German governments effected a compensation programme in 2002.

Mr. Rotberg developed an interest in urban planning and downtown revitalization, both from the practical and academic viewpoints. He served as vice-Chair of Kitchener's Downtown Advisory Committee and on other committees at City Hall. He began to develop infill residential projects, on both brownfield and clean sites, including townhouses and apartment buildings. Specifically he became interested in the issue of housing affordability and was a pioneer in government assisted programs to provide affordable housing. At the same time, he became a frequent contributor to newspapers on the issues of urban sprawl, downtown issues, brownfield remediation, and affordable housing, and has appeared at conferences in this area. Also as part of one of his real estate developments he donated some parkland to the City of Kitchener, which agreed to name it Wallenberg Park after the Holocaust hero, Raoul Wallenberg.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Rotberg's other interests began to eclipse his law practice and in 1997 he sold his practice to concentrate on writing and land development. He says that he is the only land developer - author that he knows. With the writing of The Second Catastrophe, Mr. Rotberg has returned to his first love - the writing of History, and also the genre of historical fiction.