Born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Bob attended the University of Calgary, the University of Alaska and Oregon State University to become a wildlife biologist. He served with the Government of the Northwest Territories as ornithologist for 16 years, and has published dozens of articles in refereed wildlife journals, and many additional reports deriving from his work for his business Whole Arctic Consulting and for non-government organizations.
Since 1997 he has focused on mitigation of climate change and localized northern community economies, working especially with northern communities. From 2007-2015 Bromley served as MLA (Weledeh), Northwest Territories. He currently resides in Yellowknife with his wife Marianne, and also serves on the Board of Ecology North – of which he was a founder in 1971, and the Northern Farm Training Institute based in Hay River; and volunteers with Yellowknife-based Alternatives North and NWT Council of Canadians NWT Chapter.