Bjarke Ingels: BIG Bjarke Ingels Group
Bjarke Ingels started BIG Bjarke Ingels Group in 2005 after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 and working at OMA in Rotterdam. Through a series of award-winning design projects and buildings, Bjarke has developed a reputation for designing buildings that are as programmatically and technically innovative as they are cost and resource conscious. Bjarke has received numerous awards and honors, including the Danish Crown Prince’s Culture Prize in 2011, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004, and the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal awarded Bjarke the Architectural Innovator of the Year Award. In 2012, the American Institute of Architects granted the 8 House its Honor Award, calling it “a complex and exemplary project of a new typology.”
Alongside his architectural practice, Bjarke taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He is a frequent public speaker and has spoken in venues such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street, and the World Economic Forum.
Anthony R. Foxx: Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina
The Honorable Anthony R. Foxx is the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. He took the oath of office on December 7, 2009, becoming the City’s 48th and youngest mayor. Mayor Foxx’s political career began in 2005 with his election to City Council as an At-Large Representative and served two terms before being elected Mayor in 2009. As a Council Member, Foxx chaired the Transportation Committee, was a member of the Economic Development & Planning Committee, and served as Council’s representative to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Development Corporation and the Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization.
During his first term as mayor, Foxx led a citywide pursuit to bid for the Democratic National Convention. The bid was successful when it was announced in February 2011 that Charlotte was selected to host the convention. Mayor Foxx serves as chair of the Charlotte in 2012 Host Committee, balancing his role as mayor and official host for the convention. Foxx received a law degree from New York University’s School of Law as a Root-Tilden Scholar, the University’s prestigious public service scholarship, and earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Davidson College. He is a member of the Mecklenburg County Bar and a graduate of its Leadership Institute.
Jennifer Keesmat: Chief Planner, City of Toronto
As the newly engaged Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, Jennifer is committed to creating places where people flourish. Over the past decade Jennifer has been repeatedly recognized by the Canadian Institute of Planners, OPPI, the Design Exchange, + EDRA for her innovative work in Canadian municipalities.
Her planning practice is characterized by an emphasis on collaborations across sectors, and broad engagement with municipal staff, councils, developers, business leaders, NGO’s and residents associations. Jennifer is the founder of Project Walk, which premiered its first short film in 2011, as an official selection at the TIFF. In 2012 Jennifer debuted her first TED talk, Walk to School. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario (combined honours English and Philosophy) and has a Master in Environmental Studies (Politics and Planning) from York University.
Florence Hudson: Executive in IBM Corporate Strategy
Florence Hudson is an executive in IBM Corporate Strategy where she leads the development of business and technical strategies for energy & the environment, smarter planet, smarter buildings and cities, advanced water management, Watson, analytics, cloud computing, growth markets, financing, hardware, software and services.
Ms. Hudson has lectured widely regarding Smarter Planet and energy & the environment, including a TED talk at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2012, Advanced Energy Conferences, Princeton, Columbia and Harvard Universities, China, India, and Trinidad.
She has been at IBM for 31 years in leadership positions including Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy, acting Chief Technology Officer for the IBM Global Industrial Sector, and as an executive-on-loan and IBM Vice President of Strategic Planning for the Society of Women Engineers where she developed new programs to inspire girls and women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics worldwide.
Prior to IBM, Ms. Hudson worked for Hewlett-Packard. She also worked as an Aerospace engineer at Grumman Corporation and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on projects for solar power satellites, the space shuttle program and future missions around Jupiter.
Florence serves as a Trustee for the Society of Women Engineers, a Director on the Board of Directors for IEC Electronics, a member of the Princeton University Technology Advisory Council and Princeton University Advisory Council for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She has been honored with the Society of Women Engineers Upward Mobility Award for her exemplary business and technical leadership and for serving as an outstanding mentor and role model for women worldwide, and was honored as a Wise Wonderful Woman of Westchester.
Ms. Hudson graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and has attended executive education at Harvard Business School and Columbia University.
Tim Duggan: Community Planner, ASLA
Tim Duggan, ASLA, is a community planner and landscape architect currently developing new initiatives for Make It Right. Over the last three years, he has helped design and execute affordable LEED Platinum Landscapes and worked extensively with local community organizations, government and corporate partners on numerous projects from regenerative residential garden designs to city-wide infrastructure. His architecture career began with BNIM Architects focusing on community planning initiatives and sustainable urban designs. Tim is an expert in innovative storm water management techniques, sustainable land-use and community engagement in the planning process.
Tim has served as speaker and guest critic on sustainable site solutions at TED, GreenBuild, Congressional Black Caucus, WEFTEC and many others. He has served as adjunct professor and guest lecturer for Tulane University, Kansas State University and the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Tim was named one of Metropolis magazine’s 2012 Game Changers for his ambitious experiments in landscape design. Tim advises numerous community organizations in Kansas City, New Orleans, Chicago and New York City on urban revitalization, micro farming, wetlands restoration and environmental education and outreach.
Peter Miscovich: Managing Director, Corporate Solutions, Jones Lang LaSalle
Peter Miscovich is Managing Director, Corporate Solutions, at Jones Lang LaSalle focused upon corporate strategy.A leading workplace industry expert with more than 20 years of experience, Peter Miscovich develops integrated corporate strategies involving emerging technologies, workplace innovation and sustainable urbanization solutions for global Fortune 500 companies. Miscovich previously served as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and he is recognized as an industry thought leader by the Conference Board, CoreNet Global, the Urban Land Institute and the BROOKINGS Institute. His client relationships include the following global organizations: Accenture, AIG, American Express, AT&T, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Bloomberg, British Telecom, CISCO, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Diageo, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, General Services Administration, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, IBM, Irvine Company, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife, Merck, Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Procter & Gamble, QBE Insurance, Sony, Time Warner, UBS and Viacom.
Peter Miscovich serves on the Board of the Regional Plan Association and the Garrison Institute as well as the CERES Presidents Advisory Council. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Corporate Solutions business works with corporations to improve the cost, efficiency, and performance of their national and global real estate portfolios by creating outsourcing partnerships to manage and execute a range of occupier services.
Ruthbea Yesner Clarke: IDC, Government Insights
Ruthbea Yesner Clarke is the research director responsible for managing the global Smart Cities Strategies program at IDC. In this program, Ms. Clarke discusses strategies and execution of relevant Smart City technologies and services implementations with a focus on intelligent transportation systems, intelligent public safety and innovations in mobility and social business in local government. She also contributes to consulting engagements and custom research requests to support state and local governments’ Smart City strategies and IT vendors’ Smart City solution offerings .
Ms. Clarke has had several roles at IDC over the past 12 years. Ms. Clarke helped launch the IDC end-user research Vertical Group as the Director of Vertical Views following five years as a Consulting Director for large-scale international projects. In this role she provided strategic and tactical marketing services, including market opportunity assessments, competitive analysis, and cost/benefit analysis. Ms. Clarke joined IDC following work as a product manager in Internet start-ups in Silicon Valley. Prior to that, she worked with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health in as a director of programs serving young adults and adolescents diagnosed with substance abuse and mental health issues. Ms. Clarke holds a BA from Wesleyan University, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston College with an MBA and MSW joint degree.
Seth W. Pinsky: President, New York City Economic Development Corporation
Seth W. Pinsky was appointed President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008, seven months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers ushered in one of the most significant economic downturns in generations. Since then, Seth has responded to the crisis by re-evaluating the agency’s strategy, seeking to position the City as the global center for innovation in the 21st Century.
During his tenure, Seth has also helped to negotiate the City’s involvement in some of the most complex development projects in recent years. These include the World Trade Center, the acquisition of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governor’s Island, as well as the creation of two new world-class academic institutions: an applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island with Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and an NYU-led consortium in Downtown Brooklyn that will focus on the critical challenges facing cities. An attorney by training, prior to joining NYCEDC, Seth was an associate at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and a financial analyst at James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated. Seth is a graduate of Columbia College and Harvard Law School.
Philip Enquist: Partner, Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Philip Enquist is leader of the global city design practice of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), the world’s most highly awarded urban planning group. Phil and his studios have improved the quality and efficiency of city living on five continents by creating location-unique strategic designs that integrate nature and urban density within a framework of future-focused public infrastructure. The scale of Phil’s design perspective continues to expand from innovating sustainable urban forms that enhance city living with walkable, transit-enabled districts humanized by their natural amenities to rapidly changing urban clusters within regional ecosystems like North America’s Great Lakes basin and China’s Bohai Rim. Phil is committed to the profession through one-on-one mentorships, his recent teaching of a studio for architecture and urban design students at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and as the Charles Moore Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
John Sexton: President, New York University
John Sexton, the fifteenth President of New York University, also is the Benjamin Butler Professor of Law and NYU Law School’s Dean Emeritus, having served as Dean for 14 years. He joined the Law School’s faculty in 1981, was named the School’s Dean in 1988, and was designated the University’s President in 2001. President Sexton is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a past member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities. He is past Chair of the American Council on Education, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2003-2006) and Chair of the Federal Reserve Systems Council of Chairs (2006). He served as a Board Member for the National Association of Securities Dealers (1996-1998), and was Founding Chair of the Board of NASD Dispute Resolution (2000-2002). He also serves on the Board of the Institute of International Education. While Dean of the Law School he was President of the Association of American Law Schools.
Fred Dust: Advisory Board for Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program
As a Partner at IDEO, Fred Dust works with leaders and change agents to unlock the potential of innovation networks in business, government, and society. During his tenure, Fred has taken Nike executives shopping, helped to guide the realization of a future-focused education center at Stanford University, and collaborated with patients and staff to build innovative service models for the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. He’s also collaborated with the American Red Cross to redesign its donation experience and the Transportation Security Administration to evolve airport security. Other clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller foundation, the University of Phoenix, the US Agency for International Development, the US Office of Personnel Management, and the US Social Security Administration.
Fred is a frequently requested speaker, advisor, and lecturer. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program, the Board of Governors at Parsons The New School, the Places Journal Foundation Board, and IDEO.org’s Board of Directors. He lectures widely on various topics, including design methodology, future experience trends, and social innovation. He holds numerous guest professor positions, including the Bruce Goff lectureship at the University of Oklahoma, and has taught classes at California College of the Arts and at the University of California, Berkeley School of Environmental Design.
Prior to joining IDEO, Fred was a project architect at Fernau & Hartman, where he worked on retail and corporate projects, such as the Smith & Hawken headquarters and retail prototype and Oxygen Media. He also spent eight years working in the art world with major organizations (Hotwire Productions, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Galería de la Raza, and others) and independent artists, supervising the development of interactive art installations and assisting in the production of film video projects.
Fred’s writing, published by various journals, appears in several books: Extra Spatial (Chronicle Books, 2003) discusses the design of spaces, and Eyes Open: New York and Eyes Open: London (Chronicle Books, 2008) are city guides that view exceptional experiences through an urban lens. Fred holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Reed College and a master’s in architecture from the School of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley.
Dr. Jaana Remes: Principal for the McKinsey Global Institute
Dr. Jaana Remes is a principal for the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey’sbusiness and economics research arm, based in San Francisco. Since 2003, Dr. Remes has led MGI’s research on productivity, competitiveness, and growth. Her most recent research sheds light on the changing global manufacturing landscape through case studies of diverse industries and draws implications for North American companies and policy makers. Other recent work looks at the rising urban consuming class and shifting economic power of cities across the globe, as well as the patterns of urban growth and renewal across the Americas. Her previous research includes an in-depth analysis of how different policies have contributed to industry competitiveness and growth; the impact of multinational companies on emerging economies; as well as in-depth assessments of the barriers to competitiveness and growth across a range of economies, including the US, Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, and South Korea. She also has also led MGI’s research agenda on energy, with a focus on understanding the microeconomic underpinnings of global energy demand growth and the opportunity to reduce energy demand growth through higher energy productivity. She advises global business and government leaders on related topics and frequently contributes to policy debates through articles and conference presentations.
Ron Bogle: President/CEO of American Architectural Foundation
In 2002, Ron Bogle was named the seventh president/CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based American Architectural Foundation (AAF). With the appointment, Bogle brought to the position a career-long commitment to public service and his lifelong passion for community development, civic engagement, education, art and architecture.
Bogle continues to be an innovative leader. His professional interests include the impact of local community design choices and processes on community development, urban neighborhood revitalization, civic engagement, quality of life and governance systems in educational institutions and municipalities. Under his leadership, AAF has significantly expanded its program scope and impact.
At AAF, Bogle’s efforts are squarely focused on creating and sustaining programs to identify and advance best practices for the design of livable communities across the country. He also created and leads Great Schools by Design, a national AAF program that provides resources to local community and educational leaders engaged in K-12 school facility design and construction. In addition, he is the managing partner of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a renowned program co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the US Conference of Mayors and AAF that provides innovative city planning and design resources to mayors across the country. In November 2004, Bogle was appointed by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In 2013 Bogle will launch AAF’s Center for Design and the City which will elevate the role of design at the intersection of public policy, technology and innovation when addressing the challenges and opportunities faced by metropolitan areas.
Bogle’s professional experience includes senior leadership appointments in higher education, business and non-profit fields. A native of Oklahoma City, he served nine years on the Oklahoma City Board of Education and several years as the Board’s President. While in Oklahoma, Bogle was a leader in two major initiatives resulting in over $1 billion in public-funded support to transform the commercial and cultural viability of the city’s urban center by replacing or restoring a wide range of civic and educational facilities.
Additionally, as part of a decade-long plan to strengthen urban neighborhoods and create a model urban school district, Bogle co-founded and helped lead a community-wide initiative resulting in $700 million taxpayer support to replace or renovate every public school facility in Oklahoma City. On a per pupil basis, the measure is believed to have been the largest public school financing initiative in the nation at that time. Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys added, “Ron provided invaluable leadership behind the successful initiative to rebuild our entire school district, an endeavor rivaling any in the country for its innovation, scope and scale of inclusive support.”
Harold Adams, CEO Emeritus of the international architectural firm RTKL and former Chair of the AAF Board of Regents stated, “Ron’s judgment and experience as a visionary and civic leader behind one of the nation’s largest community revitalization initiatives contributes considerably to the AAF’s focus on using architecture to enhance community life. Ron’s experience and passions give him a decidedly distinctive grasp of our opportunities and challenges at the community level.”
Susan Crawford: Professor, Cardozo Law School
Susan Crawford is a Professor at Cardozo Law School and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She recently authored Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age (Yale) and regularly contributes to Bloomberg View and Wired. Crawford is a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation.
Crawford has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Michigan. As an academic, she teaches open government policy, Internet law, and communications law. She served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy in 2009. Crawford was a member of the board of directors of ICANN from 2005-2008 and is the founder of OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the Internet that takes place each Sept. 22. One of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology (2009); IP3 Awardee (2010); one of Prospect Magazine’s Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future (2011); and one of Newsweek‘s 100 Digital Disruptors (2012). She serves on the boards of Public Knowledge and TPRC and as a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center at Harvard. Ms. Crawford received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. She served as a clerk for Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) (Washington, D.C.) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy. She lives in New York City.
Bob Rennie: Founder, Rennie Marketing Systems
For over 35 years, Rennie Marketing Systems has been at the forefront of marketing new developments and advising developers and the industry at large in the city of Vancouver and beyond. Rennie Marketing Systems is one of the leading condominium sales and marketing firms in North America. Founded by Bob Rennie, creator of the team’s approach and success, Rennie Marketing Systems is recognized for envisioning and growing Vancouver’s condominium market-one of the most sophisticated markets in the world-and is often credited for changing the city’s skyline. Bob has been marketing real estate since 1975, becoming a household name and recognized as a top authority in the local economy.
With a passion for contemporary art, Bob chairs the North America Acquisitions Committee (NAAC) at Tate Museum, London, is a member of the Tate International Council and sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board to the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. In recognition of his dedication to the arts and the arts community, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2008 and was recently appointed to the university’s Board of Governors.
In addition to sitting on the advisory board of Lower Mainland Steel, one of the largest single corporate supporter of Canucks Place, Bob also sits on the board for the Streetohome Foundation, a local organization that aims to help ensure the homeless in Vancouver have access to safe, decent, affordable housing and support services. With a personal interest in stabilizing Vancouver’s Chinatown, Bob renovated and restored the oldest building in Chinatown-the Wing Sang, constructed in 1889-to house his offices and a contemporary art museum.
Pierre-Gerlier Forest: President and CEO, The Trudeau Foundation
Prior to joining the Trudeau Foundation, Pierre-Gerlier Forest was an Assistant Deputy Minister with Health Canada, the Canadian federal Ministry of Health, where he was first appointed to the G.D.W. Cameron Chair (2003) before becoming Chief Scientist (2004-2006).
Well known for his work in the areas of health policy and the governance of health care organizations, PG Forest also held the position of Director of Research, Commission of the Future of Health Care in Canada (Romanow Commission). He spent most of his academic career at Universite Laval, in Quebec City, where he was Professor of policy analysis and public management with the Department of Political Science (1990–2007).
PG Forest obtained a Master’s degree in Political Science at Universite Laval (1984) and a PhD. in History and Socio-Politics of Science at Universite de Montreal (1989). In the years following his post-doctoral studies (Manchester Business School), several governments and numerous organizations have called on his expertise, particularly in the areas of health system reform and knowledge management.
Joy Bailey Bryant: Consultant for Cultural Planning, Lord Cultural Resources
Joy Bailey Bryant is Principal Consultant for Cultural Planning at Lord Cultural Resources. With a network of offices in Toronto, New York, Paris, Beijing, and Mumbai, Lord Cultural Resources has grown to become the largest cultural planning firm in the world having completed over 2,000 cultural planning and management projects in 51 countries and on 6 continents. A cultural planning specialist, certified interpretive planner, and outreach facilitator, Joy works with city officials, institutional leaders, and developers, in global municipalities like Chicago; New York; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Dharan, Saudi Arabia to creatively plan cities and bring people (life!) to public institutions. Joy led the teams for institutional and cultural planning on remarkable projects like the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, and planning and opening the expansion of the Albany Civil Rights Institute in Albany, Georgia—unearthing thousands of untold stories of the Southwest Georgia Civil Rights Movement.
Driven by the engagement philosophy of “meet people where they are,” Joy has authored several articles on community engagement including, Planning for Community Needs, in the third edition of the Manual of Museum Planning. The article is designed to empower staff at cultural institutions to reach beyond their “typical” audience. Following her mantra, Joy is willing to “follow the crowd,” holding meetings at festivals, conferences, on social media, churches, community centers, schools, and even bars.
Before joining Lord, Joy was on the transition team at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) evolving the General Operating Support (GOS) grant to the Museums for American grant, the agency’s leading award for museums. A native of Atlanta, Joy began her cultural career at the Braves Museum at Turner Field. Joy completed her M.A. in Arts Management from American University in Washington, D.C. and her B.Sc. in Public Relations from Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida.
Simon Farbrother: City Manager, City of Edmonton
Simon Farbrother has served as Edmonton’s City Manager since January 2010, leading the civic administration through a time of tremendous growth and transformation in the city.
This fall, Simon will begin his term as President of the International City/County Managers Association. He has been named one of the province’s 50 most influential people by Alberta Venture magazine and was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, which honours significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.
Simon has worked in municipal government in 1988. During his term as City Manager of Waterloo, it was named the International Intelligent Community of the Year by the Intelligent Community Forum.
Jill Lerner: Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Jill Lerner is a Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, one of the worlds most respected and innovative architectural design firms. Operating as one firm with offices in New York, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Abu Dhabi, KPF is led by 23 Principals and 19 Directors. The firm’s more than 600 staff members come from 43 different countries, speak more than 30 languages, and include over 80 LEED accredited professionals. KPF’s diverse portfolio, which features over 70 projects certified or pursuing green building certification and has academic, medical, research, civic, and transportation projects located in more than 35 countries. The firm’s work includes the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, Heron Tower, Unilever House and the Pinnacle in London. 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago, the RBC Centre and Ritz-Carlton in Toronto, the Abu Dhabi International Airport, the Shanghai World Financial Center, the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, New Songdo City in Korea and, most recently, Hudson Yards for Related in New York City. At KPF, Jill leads institutional practice in the design of award-winning academic and research facilities projects throughout the United States and abroad. An Architect with over 35 years of experience, she is committed to design excellence in all aspects of her work. Major clients in include NYU, CUNY and the Related Companies, with key projects including NYU Shanghai, the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, The Semel Institute at UCLA, and CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center, School of Law and Baruch College’s Newman Vertical Campus.
Kyung-Ah Park: Managing director and the head of Environmental Markets Group, Goldman Sachs
Kyung-Ah Park is a managing director and the head of Environmental Markets Group, which oversees and supports the global environmental initiatives of Goldman Sachs. She manages the Center for Environmental Markets, which partners with corporates, nongovernmental organizations, and academic institutions to further market-based solutions to environmental issues. Kyung-Ah serves on the Firmwide Physical Commodity Review Committee. Previously, she was a vice president in the Industrials Group in the Investment Banking Division and an executive director of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC, where she worked in an advisory capacity with clients across the region. Kyung-Ah joined Goldman Sachs in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department in New York. Prior to joining the firm, Kyung-Ah worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Seoul, Korea, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Kyung-Ah earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Steven E. Koonin: Director, NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress
Steven E. Koonin was appointed as the founding Director of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress in April 2012. That consortium of academic, corporate, and government partners will pursue research and education activities to develop and demonstrate informatics technologies for urban problems in the “living laboratory” of New York City. He previously served as the U.S. Department of Energy’s second Senate-confirmed Under Secretary for Science from May 19, 2009 through November 18, 2011. As Under Secretary for Science, Dr. Koonin functioned as the Department’s chief scientific officer, coordinating and overseeing research across the DOE. He led the preparation of the Department’s 2011 Strategic Plan and was the principal author of its recently released Quadrennial Technology Review. Dr. Koonin particularly championed research programs in High Performance Simulation, Exascale Computing, Inertial Fusion Energy, and Greenhouse Gas Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification. He also provided technical counsel on diverse nuclear security matters.
Jeffrey S. Lehman: Vice chancellor and professor of law, NYU Shanghai
He has previously been founding dean of the Peking University School of Transnational Law, president of Cornell University, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, a tenured professor of law and public policy at the University of Michigan, a practicing lawyer in Washington, D.C., a law clerk to Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a law clerk to Chief Judge Frank M. Coffin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He serves as a director of Infosys, Ltd, chairs the boards of Infosys Public Services and the Institute for China-U.S. Law and Policy Studies, and is a member of the international advisory board of the Nazareth Academic Institute. He is a member of China’s Foreign Experts Advisory Committee and an American representative in the U.S.-China Legal Experts Dialogue. He previously served as president of the American Law Deans Association, chair of the board of Internet2, and a member of the boards of trustees of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, and the Asian University for Women Support Foundation. His honors include the Friendship Award from the People’s Republic of China, the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., an honorary doctorate from Peking University, honorary professorships at several other universities, and membership in the American Law Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University and degrees in law and public policy from the University of Michigan.
Stephen Engblom: Senior Vice President, AECOM
Stephen Engblom, LEED AP, Assoc. AIA, is a Senior Vice President with AECOM and leads the company’s Design + Planning and Economics practice line in the Americas. An accomplished urban designer and architect with a global portfolio, he has over 20 years of experience in City Building. Stephen works with cities, corporations, institutions and developers on planning, design and implementation strategies for a wide range of urban projects.
Engblom is currently splitting his time between Brazil and United States working with some of the largest cities and most influential developers in North and South America. Some examples of his recent projects are: San Francisco’s new downtown Transbay District zoning guidelines; Loyola Marymount’s new campus master plan, the Squamish Nation’s redevelopment vision for the North Shore of Vancouver; the City of São Paulo’s landmark downtown Nova Luz District regeneration plan; and a wide range of projects in Recife Brazil including the award winning Cidade da Copa being built for 2014 World Cup. Previously , he lived and worked in Hong Kong for 6 years, where he directed AECOM’s Urban Design Practice working on a diverse portfolio of large scale masterplanning projects that have become some of the regions’ most successful economic engines: Shanghai’s Suzhou Creek regeneration, Shenzhen’s Shuibei District, Hainan Island’s Shenzhou Peninsula, Macau’s Cotai Gaming District, Singapore’s Marina Bay.
Emma Stewart: Head of Sustainability Solutions, Autodesk
Emma Stewart, Ph.D., is Head of Sustainability Solutions at Autodesk, where she leads the design software company’s efforts to make sustainable design easy, insightful, and cost-effective for its millions of engineering and design customers. In 2009, Emma founded Autodesk’s Sustainable Design Living Lab program, which uses Autodesk facilities as a testing ground for new software to rapidly green existing buildings. In 2008, she founded its Sustainable Operations program, which was named best-in-class by the Carbon Disclosure Project. She co-developed Autodesk’s C-FACT methodology (a Corporate Finance Approach to Climate-stabilizing Targets), an open-source, science-driven, business-friendly approach to greenhouse gas target-setting. Prior to Autodesk, she founded and directed the Environmental R&D Division at Business for Social Responsibility, where her team designed corporate initiatives to analyze and adapt to horizon issues such as payments for ecosystem services, water footprinting, carbon offsets and trading, voluntary supply chain standards, and sustainable product design. Emma has been a regularly featured columnist for Harvard Business Online, Environmental Leader, and GreenBiz and her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, Forbes, Chicago Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, The Huffington Post, Inside Washington, Environmental Finance, Environmental Law Journal, and Sustainable Industries, among others. She is a contributing author to a number of recent books: Corporate Responses to Climate Change, The Encyclopedia of Sustainable Business, and Carbon Trading.
Gabriella Gomez-Mort: Director, Laboratorio para la Ciudad
With one of the most complex and fascinating cities in the whole world as playground, Gabriella directs “Laboratorio para la Ciudad*, Mexico City`s new creative think-tank and experimental space: a place to reflect about all things city, and ponder social scripts and urban futures for the largestmegalopolis on the American continent: from the speculative (even outlandish) to the practical. This project came about through a personal invitation by Dr. Miguel Angel Mancera–Mexico City`s newly elected and liberal Mayor–to incorporate “Laboratorio para la Ciudad” into the city`s official structure for the next 6 years. This novel initiative will support creativity and civic innovation through the different layers of both government and social-space, intermingled. Looking to imagine new urban (im)possibilities, further collaboration and discover provocative ways of both thinking and creating city, Laboratorio brings people together from different sectors and disciplines (urbanists, artists, scientists, architects, government officials, sociologists, economists et al). It also induces conversations throughout different platforms, invents and implements pilot programs, creates editorial projects plus other initiatives and strategies: all with the aim of injecting good ideas into the city`s system. In sum, this city lab places imagination at the center of community discourse, and searches for new solutions to social issues even as it satisfies creative impulses. In addition to directing Laboratory for the City, Gomez-Mort is a multilingual writer, visual artist, dcoumentary film director, cultural advisor and arts curator.
Jonathan F.P. Rose: President, Rose Companies
Jonathan F.P. Rose’s business, public policy and not-for-profit work all focus on creating a more environmentally, socially and economically responsible world. In 1989, Mr. Rose founded Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, a multi-disciplinary real estate development, planning, consulting and investment firm, as a leading green urban solutions provider. The firm has successfully completed $1.5 billion of work. In 2005, the firm launched the nation’s first green transit oriented acquisition and redevelopment fund. The company’s mission is to repair the fabric of communities. The firm draws on its human capital, financial depth and real estate expertise to create highly integrated solutions to real estate challenges. The firm’s work touches many aspects of community health; working with cities and not-for-profits to build not only housing, but also civic, cultural, educational and infrastructure open space. A thought leader in the Smart Growth, national infrastructure, green building, and affordable housing movements, Mr. Rose is a frequent speaker and writer. His work has received widespread media attention from CNN to The New York Times and was profiled in e², a PBS series on sustainable development.
Eleni Reed: Chief Greening Officer, U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service
Eleni Reed serves as Chief Greening Officer at the U.S. General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service (PBS). Eleni works with PBS business lines and regions to integrate sustainability practices in all aspects of real estate operations to increase the environmental performance of GSA’s portfolio in support of the agency’s sustainability plan. She also leads the agency’s Green Proving Ground (GPG), a program that utilizes GSA’s real estate portfolio to test and evaluate innovative building technologies and practices. The GPG program aims to drive innovation in environmental performance in federal buildings and help lead market transformation through deployment of new technologies. Prior to coming to GSA, Eleni was Director of Sustainability Strategies with Cushman and Wakefield. Her past public service includes working with the City of New York’s Mayor’s Office of Operations.
Ilse Treurnicht: CEO, MaRS Discovery District
Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs. Ilse has worked closely with the leadership of Toronto’s academic institutions and teaching hospitals to create MaRS Innovation, an integrated commercialization platform for 14 Toronto Institutions and served as the interim Managing Director for a year following its formal launch in early 2008. Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a start-up stage venture capital fund focused on the advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, Ilse was an entrepreneur with senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies. She is an active member of Canada’s innovation community and has served on the boards of private companies, industry associations and research organizations. She has also been a member of several government advisory panels. Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar. She has twice been honoured with the prestigious Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™Award—the first time in 2009 and again in 2011.
Soumitra Dutta: Dean, Johnson Graduate School of Mgmt., Cornell University
Soumitra Dutta became the eleventh dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University on July 1, 2012. He previously served as the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and founder and academic director of the eLab at INSEAD, a top-ranked graduate business school in Fontainebleau, France. Previous roles Dutta has held during his 22-year tenure at INSEAD include dean of external relations; dean of executive education; and dean of technology and e-learning. He has served as a visiting professor in the Haas School at Berkeley, Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford, and Judge School at University of Cambridge in England. He has lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including stints as an engineer with GE in the U.S. and Schlumberger in Japan. Dutta is an authority on the impact of new technology on the business world, especially social media and social networking, and on strategies for driving growth and innovation by embracing the digital economy. He is the co-editor and author respectively of two influential reports in technology and innovation the Global Information Technology Report (co-published with the World Economic Forum) and the Global Innovation Index (to be co-published with the World Intellectual Property Organization).
Herbert Bautista: Mayor, Quezon City, Philippines
Mayor Herbert M Bautista is known as a pioneer and progressive advocate of solutions for environment issues and climate change. Under his leadership, Quezon City became the first city in the Philippines to implement a Green Building Ordinance, enforcing sustainable building designs throughout the city. He has mandated a greening program as a component of all road and real estate development projects. He is leading the city to reduce its carbon footprint through the shift of public facilities towards alternative energy sources and wider installation of systems for resource reuse.
Mayor Bautista’s urban development framework anchors the City’s housing and resettlement program on disaster-risk reduction as well as quality of life enrichment. The priority is to move the poor from danger areas towards new townships, a project he is implementing in multiples, in collaboration with the private sector and national government agencies. Mayor Herbert M. Bautista is probably one of the youngest officials of the Philippines who has had a long and fruitful experience in government and the youth movement. He was elected into Office in May 2010. Concurrently, he is the public relations officer for the National Capital Region of the League of Cities of the Philippines, as well as Chairman of the Social Development Committee of the Regional Development Council of the Metro Manila Development Authority.
Kasim Reed: Mayor, City of Atlanta
Kasim Reed was inaugurated as the 59th Mayor of the City of Atlanta on January 4, 2010. Since then, he has hired more than 700 police officers, re-opened all of the city’s recreation centers as safe havens for young people and improved core city services such as fire-rescue response times and sanitation operations. Working with the Atlanta City Council and the city’s employee unions, he successfully initiated a series of sweeping reforms to address the city’s $1.5 billion unfunded pension liability. Mayor Reed began his term facing a $48 million budget shortfall; under his leadership, the city has had three years of balanced budgets with no property tax increases, and its cash reserves have grown from $7.4 million to more than $126 million.
Mayor Reed has received numerous accolades since taking office. In September 2012, he was named the 6th most influential African-American in the nation by The Root, a publication of the Washington Post Company. He received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the National Forum for Black Public Administrators in July 2012. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington D.C. honored him in May 2012 with the Louis E. Martin Great American Award, saying he “heralds a new and creative approach to leadership.” Governing Magazine named Mayor Reed as one of the top state and local government officials of the year in November 2011.
Andrew Blum: Author, ‘Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet’
Andrew Blum is the author of Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, the first book-length look at the physical infrastructure of the global Internet. Blum’s writings about architecture, design, technology, urbanism, art, and travel have appeared in numerous publications, including Metropolis, where he is a contributing editor, Wired, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Popular Science. Tubes has been published globally and translated into nine languages. Blum has degrees in literature from Amherst College and in human geography from the University of Toronto, and lives in his native New York City with his wife and two children.
Dr. Julio Montaner: Professor of Medicine, Head of the Division of AIDS, UBC
Dr. Montaner is a Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of AIDS at UBC. He also holds the endowed Chair in AIDS Research. He is the Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the Past-President of the International AIDS Society. He played a key role in establishing the efficacy of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) and since then has established the role of HAART with financial support of the BC Ministry of Health Services, an Avant Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US, as well as CIHR, Merck, ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Janssen Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Sly James: Mayor, Kansas City
Sly James was elected mayor of Kansas City on March 22, 2011, and sworn in on May 1, 2011. Born and raised in Kansas City, Mayor James attended Bishop Hogan High School in Kansas City, graduating in 1969. He went on to serve as a military police officer for four years and received an honorable discharge in 1975. When his service ended, Mayor James returned home to Kansas City and graduated cum laude from Rockhurst College before earning his law degree, also cum laude, from the University of Minnesota in 1983.
Throughout his successful 26-year legal career, Mayor James has earned extensive professional accolades including being appointed to the Missouri Board of Law Examiners, leading the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (KCMBA) and the Kansas City Bar Foundation, and serving as vice president of the Public Interest Litigation Clinic and of the board of directors of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. In 2002, Mayor James started his own successful small business, The Sly James Firm, where he works with victims to seek justice and positive outcomes to disputes.
Michael Davidson: Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase
Michael Davidson is a Managing Director and Head of the New York Region & Global Corporate & Investment Bank Real Estate Portfolio at JP Morgan Chase and Co., encompassing 15MM square feet (sf) across 500 Locations in 54 Countries, with a $1.7 Billion Annual Operating Plan; Davidson joined JP Morgan in November 2010. Davidson led the Line of Business integration, strategy and overall leadership engagement for JP Morgan’s acquisition, development and occupancy of 25 Bank Street in London, involving the planning, change management and move of 7,000 employees with a project budget of $328MM.
James Good: Executive Vice President, Veolia Water
James Good, an Executive Vice President and member of the senior management team of Veolia Water North America Operating Services, LLC (Veolia Water), is currently serving as the Interim Executive Director for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) under a new contract between that agency and Veolia Water. In 2012, the PWSA hired Veolia Water to provide interim executive management services, leading 270 public employees in the delivery of efficient water and wastewater services to more than 300,000 people in the greater Pittsburgh area. A team of water and wastewater experts from Veolia Water, working under the leadership of Mr. Good, is now working with the PWSA to improve that utility’s customer service and performance levels by conducting in-depth diagnostics of their current operations and developing specific recommendations for improvement. Veolia Water is also supporting PWSA’s employees in implementing initiatives aimed at reaching new performance metrics. The PWSA provides water and wastewater services to more than 300,000 consumers throughout the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
Bruce Katz:Vice President, Brookings Institution
Bruce Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, which aims to provide decision makers in the public, corporate and civic sectors with policy ideas for improving the health and prosperity of cities and metropolitans areas. Bruce regularly advises federal, state, regional and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas in topics critical to the next economy, including fostering innovation, taking advantage of the clean economy, growing exports, and creating broad-based opportunity. He counsels on shifting demographic and market trends as well as on policies that are critical to metropolitan prosperity and new forms of metropolitan governance.
Currently, Bruce leads two signature initiatives at Brookings: the Brookings-Rockefeller Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation, which presents fiscally-responsible state policies and practical metropolitan-led solutions that leaders can use to create the next economy; and the Global Cities Initiative, a Joint Project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase, which helps American city and metropolitan leaders become more “globally fluent,” expand the global reach of their economies, and create an international network of global cities that naturally trade and grow together.
Herman Wagter: Industry analyst, Diffraction Analysis
Herman Wagter is a program manager specialized in developing and managing large multi-stakeholder initiatives. He managed the Amsterdam FttH-programma Citynet from its inception in 2002 until the moment Reggefiber and KPN acquired a majority stake in the operating company (GNA), and has been active both as industry analyst (Diffraction Analysis) and consultant for FttH projects since then. His experience as managing director of operating companies of listed multinationals (Randstad, Stork) supports him in balancing the business demands with the public cause. As an active tinkerer he experiments at home frequently with new applications and devices for his 100/100 Mbps FttH connection, such as Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) for his home network.
Tom Wright: Executive Director, Regional Plan Association
Tom Wright is the Executive Director of Regional Plan Association, a non-profit think-tank that compiles long range plans for the NY-NJ-CT metropolitan region. Mr. Wright oversees the day-to-day operations of RPA and coordinates activities with the Board of Directors. He has managed many of the organization’s key initiatives and products, including the Transit Leadership Summit (2012 & 2013), the Draft Vision Plan for the City of Newark (2006) and A Region at Risk: The Third Regional Plan for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan Area (1996). Previously, Mr. Wright was deputy executive director of the New Jersey Office of State Planning, where he coordinated production of the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan (2001). From 1991 to 1993, he was coordinator of the award-winning Mayors’ Institute on City Design, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jung Hee Song: Senior executive vice president, Platform & Innovation Group
Jung Hee Song, a senior executive vice president at Platform & Innovation Group, is an engineer who opened up the first generation of engineering industries for women. Ms. Song graduated from Seoul National University in 1981 majoring in Electronics Engineering and obtained Ph. D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1989. Since then, she has been involved in politics, government, and academia while devoting her effort to improving development of the IT industries in Korea. Starting her career as a senior engineer in Electronic Equipment Laboratory at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technologyin 1989, she later was promoted a director of Strategic Planning office at Samsung Electronics co.Meanwhile, she focused on the technology planning and new business development that contributed Samsung’s growth in global market. Moreover, Ms. Song served as an assistant professor in media engineering department in 1999, and then she turned out to become an entrepreneur of software solution company, Telezen.
Dr. Anthony Townsend: Senior Research Fellow, NYU
Dr. Anthony Townsend is an urban planner and forecaster whose writing, public speaking, activism and consulting focus on urbanization, ubiquitous computing and technology-led innovation and economic development. He holds posts as Senior Research Fellow at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation, and Research Director at the Institute for the Future, an independent research organization based in California’s Silicon Valley. Anthony was co-founder of NYCwireless, a pioneer in the community broadband movement, and was named one of Planetizen’s “Leading Thinkers in Urban Planning & Technology” and “Top 100 Thinkers” tracking the Internet of things by Postscapes.
Vishaan Chakrabarti: Director, Center for Urban Real Estate
Vishaan Chakrabarti is Holliday Professor and the Director of the Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE.) at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Simultaneously, he is a Principal of SHoP Architects, where with his six partners he leads the growing firm’s large-scale metropolitan project portfolio, which includes the 3,000,000 square foot development plan for the Domino Sugar site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Chakrabarti formerly served as President of Moynihan Station Venture from 2005-2009, and Director of New York City Planning’s Manhattan Office in the years after the tragedy of 9/11. Prior to this post, he was an Associate Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A licensed architect, Chakrabarti received dual Bachelor’s degrees from Cornell University in Art History and Engineering. He also holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cathleen McGuigan: Editor-in-chief, Architectural Record
Cathleen McGuigan is editor-in-chief of Architectural Record, the nation’s leading architecture publication for more than a century. McGuigan, who is the second woman to serve as editor in chief, was named to the post in 2011. Under her leadership, Record won the 2012 Grand Neal award, the top American Business Media award for overall excellence, as well as being named to the Media Power 50 list in B to B Magazine. She also serves as editorial director of GreenSource, an award-winning sustainable design magazine launched in 2006, and SNAP, a products publication that debuted in 2009.McGuigan, a former Newsweek architecture critic and arts editor, has more than three decades of cultural journalism experience. A Michigan native, she holds a BA degree in English, with a minor in art history, from Brown University. In 1992-93, she was a Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. Besides her career at Newsweek, where she was on staff from 1977 to 2008, McGuigan has worked as a consultant for various clients, including the Syracuse University School of Architecture. She served as an executive editor of HQ: Good Design Is Good Business, a McGraw-Hill pilot project. Her freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Harper’s Bazaar.
Deborah Marton, Senior Vice President of Programs, New York Restoration Project
Deborah Marton has dedicated her career to the development of public space in New York City, with a specific focus on the integration of natural systems and the built environment. Deborah joined NYRP in 2011, bringing her extensive experience moving complex municipal projects from conception to actionable conclusions. Prior to joining NYRP, Deborah served as executive director of the Design Trust for Public Space. Under her leadership the organization gained national visibility and quadrupled in size. High-profile projects completed during her tenure there have made New York City’s parks and public right-of-ways more sustainable, catalyzed the redesign of Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, strengthened Long Island City’s art community, and improved the New York City taxi vehicle and system, paving the way for the city’s new taxi, among many other projects and public programs.
Previously, Deborah was Program Manager of New York City Parks Natural Resources Group and later associated with the landscape architecture firm Field Operations, where she collaborated on creation of the winning submission for the Fresh Kills Master Plan, and later served as the first Project Manager for that project. She received a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Design School and also holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Donald B. Marron: Chairman, Marron Institute Advisory Board
As a lifelong resident of the world’s leading city, an entrepreneur and international business leader, and an active director of several institutions critical to New York City’s civic infrastructure, Donald B. Marron’s passion for critical and innovative thinking about the pivotal role cities play in our global society is perfectly matched to NYU’s Marron Institute on Cities and the Urban Environment’s mission. As Chairman of the Advisory Board, Mr. Marron will support and inspire the Institute to stimulate new ideas on how to best position cities for the future and how to most effectively put faculty research into action in cities around the world. Mr. Marron is the Founder and currently the Chairman of Lightyear Capital LLC, a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services investing. He is also a member of New York University’s Board of Trustees. Prior to founding Lightyear Capital, Mr. Marron served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Paine Webber Group Inc. for twenty years, from 1980-2000. During his 20-year tenure as CEO, PaineWebber grew into one of the nation’s five largest full-service securities firms. The combination of UBS and PaineWebber made UBS the world’s largest wealth manager. Prior to his tenure at PaineWebber and UBS, Mr. Marron served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitchell Hutchins, overseeing its transformation from a predominately retail-oriented firm into one of the leading U.S. institutional research firms. Mr. Marron began his career at the New York Trust Company.
Fred Wilson: Managing partner, Union Square Ventures
Fred Wilson has been a venture capitalist since 1987. He currently is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and also founded Flatiron Partners. Fred has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Fred is married with three kids and lives in New York City.
Sir Richard Leese (CBE): Director, Manchester Airport Holdings
Sir Richard Leese (CBE) was born, brought up and went to school in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. After graduating from the University of Warwick, worked as a teacher in Coventry and as an exchange teacher in the USA before moving to Manchester to take up a post as a youth worker. Employed variously in youth work, community work, and education research 1979-1988. Elected to the City Council in 1984. Deputy Leader from 1990 to 1996 having previously Chaired the Education Committee (1986-90) and Finance Committee (1990-95). Political interests include the links between economic development and social policy, developing open democracy and the community leadership role of local authorities; and the role of cities in creating a sustainable future. Director of Manchester Airport Holdings Ltd. Chair of the Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub. Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). Chair of the Regional Leaders’ Board (RLB), and Chair of the Core Cities Cabinet.
Richard Barkham: Research Director, Grosvenor Group
Richard Barkham is Grosvenor Group Research Director. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Grosvenor Fund Management. Few property companies today can match Grosvenor’s extensive knowledge of markets around the world. With more than three centuries of development experience, we are also characterised by our interest in the mix of property which makes urban communities thrive. Richard’s expertise is in global macro economics and real estate strategy. He has worked for Grosvenor for twelve years. His first post (2000-2005) was Research Director for Grosvenor Britain & Ireland where he played a major role in providing research support for Grosvenor’s award winning retail development programme. As Group Research Director (2006-2011), Richard was responsible for risk analysis, long range forecasts and capital allocation. In 2011 he was appointed to the Board of Grosvenor Fund Management and has responsibility for economic analysis, strategic development and the development of new funds. Prior to joining Grosvenor Richard taught in Europe’s leading real estate school; the Department of Land Management at the University of Reading. He has written numerous articles on the performance of REITs, property companies and global real estate markets.
Vin Cipolla: President, Municipal Art Society of New York
Vin Cipolla has held public sector leadership roles in New York, Washington DC and Boston including President, Municipal Art Society of New York; citizen Chairman, President and CEO, National Park Foundation; Chairman and President, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Executive Vice President, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Vice Chairman, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Vice President, Ballet Hispanico, and more. A six-time private sector CEO, he was a President and CEO with Fidelity Investments, and the Founder, Chairman and CEO of HNW, Inc. as well as the founder and CEO of two other New York-based media technology companies which he sold. He has continuously acted on his lifelong passion for the environment and building resilient and livable cities. In 2010, he founded the MAS Summit for New York City.
Jeff Friedman: Co-Director, Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
Currently, Jeff Friedman is the Co-Director of the recently launched Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, an in-house civic idea incubator that pilots experimental projects in the civic space. Previously, Jeff was the Manager of Civic Innovation & Participation in the Mayor’s Office. Jeff has led various initiatives to make City government (and urban governance generally) more open, participatory, transparent, entrepreneurial and innovative. He co-founded the OpenAccessPhilly, a government-initiated movement of people working at the intersection of civic participation, technology, entrepreneurialsm and innovation. Previously, Jeff was Chief of Staff to the Chief Technology Officer in the Division of Technology, and Deputy Director of Performance Management and Project Manager for Philly311 implementation for the Managing Director’s Office. Prior to joining City government, Jeff consulted to state, local and county governments across the nation. Jeff earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Temple University.
Rick Antonson: Board chair, Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), Washington, D.C.
Rick Antonson has served as board chair of the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) based in Washington, D.C., and vice chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) based in Bangkok, Thailand and as an Ambassador for the 2010 Olympic Winter & Paralympic Games held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada. He is president of Pacific Coast Public Television. Such volunteer roles are anchored around Rick’s responsibilities as President, CEO of Tourism Vancouver, a 1,000 member organization whose vision is to be a global leader in destination marketing, sales, management, and visitor experiences. Rick is author of the acclaimed book To Timbuktu for a Haircut; A Journey Through West Africa, and the newly released Route 66 Still Kicks; Driving America’s Main Street. He travels extensively around the world for business, speaking engagements and on personal journeys, including an expedition to the summit of Mt. Ararat. He is a firm believer that tourism is a vital force for peace.
Isabel Dedring: Deputy Mayor for Transport
Isabel Dedring is Deputy Mayor for Transport. Before her appointment, she was the Mayor’s Environment Advisor. A qualified lawyer, she has worked across both public and private sectors including at Transport for London as Director of the Commissioner’s Policy Unit and at McKinsey and Company, where she spent four years working with clients in regulated industries including telecoms and transport.
Brad Clark: Principal, Populous
Brad Clark, AIA, has more than 20 years of sports facility design experience. As a principal of Populous and senior designer, Brad has played an integral part in the creation of extraordinary arenas and facilities in urban environments including the new Louisville Downtown Arena (KFC Yum! Center), Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri and Amway Center, home of the Orlando Magic. Brad works closely with the client and design team to create innovative designs that are responsive to the unique goals and vision of his projects, clients and cities.
Simon Williams: Chief Executive and Co-Founder, QuantumBlack
Chief Executive and Co-Founder of QuantumBlack, a data science agency based in London, that blends strategy, analytics, engineering and design skills to help clients gain new intelligence from data, craft their strategic response to that intelligence and shape the organisations capabilities to deliver that response. QuantumBlack works internationally with some of the worlds most interesting organisations including Arup, Atkins, Boeing, Crossrail, McKinsey & Co, Microsoft, Standard & Poors, Thomson Reuters and several Formula One racing teams. Prior to QuantumBlack Simon led SmithBayes, a data-driven software firm spun-out from the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One racing team. Simon started his career in real-time trading systems at Reuters and then product management at ABN AMRO Bank.
Richard M. Daley: Executive Chairman, Tur Partners LLC
The longest-serving mayor in Chicago’s history, Richard M. Daley has earned an international reputation as a leading innovator in urban development, fiscal policy and government stewardship. As mayor, Mr. Daley enhanced Chicago’s quality of life, improved the public school system and infrastructure, strengthened the economy, reduced crime, improved transportation and made Chicago one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world. Mr. Daley transformed the Chicago economy by bringing cutting-edge businesses to the city. During his 22-year tenure as mayor, Chicago became a prominent player in the 21st century global economy, now ranking among the top economic centers and most influential cities worldwide. Mr. Daley pioneered a model of successful public-private partnerships that established Chicago as the benchmark for long-term sustainable urban growth and development. These partnerships, such as the city’s privatization of its Chicago Skyway, allowed Chicago to improve the state of its infrastructure and preserve much-needed social programs while other cities were forced to make concessions.
Jie Tang: Vice Mayor, Shenzhen Municipal Government of China
Jie Tang is the Vice Mayor of Shenzhen Municipal Government of China since 2009. As the leader in charge of the work of Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission, he leads the team responsible for designing and implementing Shenzhen Emissions Trading Pilot Scheme. He is the strong advocate of Shenzhen Emissions Trading Scheme and the key person who helps Shenzhen become one of the seven ETS pilots in China.Under his leadership, Shenzhen ETS pilot has made significant progress and achieved great innovations that break through the traditional ETS practices and suit the needs of Shenzhen circumstances. Before Mr. TANG was elected as the Vice Mayor, he was the DeputyDirector-General of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress (MPC) from 2007 to 2009. Before that position, he was the Secretary-General of the Shenzhen Municipal Government from 2003 to 2007. Before he started his career in government in 1998, Mr. TANG was working in Quantity Economic Research Institute of Economics, Nankai University as Lecturer, Associate Professor, Deputy Dean and Dean from 1986 to 1995 and during that period he was a Fulbright scholar at University of Pennsylvania in the United States from September 1992 to October 1993. Mr. TANG obtained a Ph.D. degree in Economics at Nankai University in China in 1993 and a Master degree in Political Economics at Nankai University as well in 1986.
