Celine Armstrong

Chief Development Officer, Fifth Avenue

Celine Armstrong is a leader in the public realm who has just completed the unprecedented Little Island park on the far west side of New York City. At $250M, it is the largest public-private partnership in New York for public open space and the second largest in the US. As Project Executive for the non-profit Pier55 Inc., Celine oversaw the design and construction of the Pier, ensuring the details were carefully considered and aligned with the vision to create an extraordinary park for all New Yorkers.

As an advocate for the public realm, she has been dedicating her volunteer time to transform streets into pedestrian-oriented spaces. In 2016, she led the effort for a multidisciplinary Park(ing) Day event with ASLA-NY, APA-NYM, AIA-NY, The High Line, and NYC DOT to provide outdoor seating and to engage with the community to learn what they hoped for within the right-of-way. The event was the beginning of a yearly demonstration to engage with the residents and businesses within Community Board 2 as well as various elected officials. More space for people is good for mental health and financial success.

Celine holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University in the City of New York and Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture with a Minor in Planning from Kansas State University.

Signe Nielsen

Landscape Architect & Founding Principal, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects

Signe Nielsen has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. Her body of work has renewed the environmental integrity and transformed the quality of spaces for those who live, work and play in the urban realm. Ms. Nielsen believes in using design as a vehicle for advocacy to promote discourse on social equity and community resilience and has served on multiple panels to effect positive change. A Fellow of the ASLA, she is the recipient of over 100 national and local design awards for public open space projects and is published extensively in national and international publications. Ms Nielsen is a Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at Pratt Institute in both the Graduate and Undergraduate Schools of Architecture and is the former President for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Born inParis, Ms. Nielsen holds degrees in Urban Planning from Smith College; in Landscape Architecture from City College of New York; and in Construction Management from Pratt Institute.

David Farnsworth

Principal, Arup

David Farnsworth is a Principal with Arup’s New York office. David has a depth of experience in the design and management of projects both locally and globally. David’s design experience ranges from new mixed use high rise tower developments to signature bridge and civic projects which encompass a wide range of program types, construction materials, and methods of construction. He has designed some of the worlds most iconic and recognizable building structures. David is Project Director responsible for Arup’s delivery of the iconic Pier 55 Little Island Project and he has been integral in driving towards a digital fabrication solution for the unique challenges associated with the delivery of the Little Island project.

Francis W. Cooke

Design Principal, AECOM

Francis is a Design Principal in the Buildings + Places group at AECOM where he leads design for Metro New York, overseeing a team of 90 architects. With broad, international experience in architecture and urban design, Francis brings a global perspective to his work, which has been recognized with 11 international design awards. A native of rural Oklahoma who has lived in China and now resides in New York City, Francis has a keen sensitivity to what makes the built environment unique and compelling for its users and is inspired by both the practical and poetic aspects of everyday life. To address the unique needs of the 21st century, Francis seeks to integrate issues as diverse as embodied carbon, integrated delivery, social equity, and neuroscience in order to produce built works that address the immediate needs of the future and create lasting value.

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen

Architect & Co-Founder, Snøhetta

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen was born in Haugesund, Norway, and in 1985 he graduated as Dipl. Ing. Architect from the University of Graz, Austria. The same year he was a co-founder of the first Norwegian gallery for architecture, Gallery ROM.

In 1989 he co-founded the multidisciplinary architectural practice, Snøhetta, which now counts the disciplines architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, product design and graphic design. Since the creation of Snøhetta, Kjetil has been instrumental in the projects developed by the practice such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the New National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway; The SFMOMA in San Francisco; the National September 11 Memorial Pavilion in NY; the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dahran, Saudi Arabia; the Lascaux IV Caves in France; the Busan Opera house in Busan; Under, Europe’s first underwater restaurant in Lindesnes, Norway; Shanghai Grand Opera House in Shanghai, China and Powerhouse Brattørkaia, the world’s northernmost energy positive building in Trondheim, Norway.

Elizabeth Thompson

VP, Customer Experience and LEED Support, USGBC

Elizabeth Thompson, VP, Customer Experience and LEED Support, USGBC
As Vice President of Customer Experience and LEED Support, Elizabeth Thompson collaborates to empower customers to utilize the expertise of USGBC to make informed and empowered choices that create a more sustainable and resilient world.

Elizabeth joined the USGBC in 2011, bringing 15 years of expertise in the practice of sustainable architecture, with a focus on schools, civic buildings, advocacy, sites, and modern homes. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech, and a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia, both in architecture. Her favorite volunteer positions have involved teaching, community-based design, and serving on non-profit boards.

With her husband, she constructed a small home that has been featured on eco-tours. She is passionate about collaborative processes that create places of durable beauty where communities can thrive.

Marc Norman

NYU’s Associate Dean, Schack Institute of Real Estate

Marc Norman is the founder of consulting firm Ideas and Action, the Larry & Klara Silverstein Chair in Real Estate Development & Investment, and Associate Dean of the Schack Institute of Real Estate at NYU.

Trained as an urban planner, he has worked in the community development and finance field for over 25 years. Previous to his current positions, he has held leadership positions at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business as Faculty Director of the Weiser Center for Real Estate, Duvernay+Brooks, LLC as Managing Director, Deutsche Bank as Vice President in the Community Development Finance Group and led Upstate, A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at Syracuse University. Norman has worked collaboratively to develop or finance over 2,000 units totaling more than $400 million in total development costs.

Hélène Chartier

Director of Urban planning and Design at C40

Hélène Chartier is the Director of Urban Planning and Design at C40 Cities, the network of global mega-cities committed to the fight against climate change.

The team she leads develops various programs to support cities across the world to accelerate sustainable and resilient urban planning policies and design practices, and to bring together cities and progressive players in the built environment industry in order to accelerate the decarbonization of buildings and urban development.

Paul Goldberger

Author, Architecture critic, and Lecturer

Paul Goldberger, who the Huffington Post has called “the leading figure in architecture criticism,” is now a Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair. From 1997 through 2011 he served as the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where he wrote the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of the Parsons school of design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.

He is the author of several books and lectures widely around the country on the subject of architecture, design, historic preservation and cities. He has taught at both the Yale School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to The New School. His writing has received numerous awards in addition to the Pulitzer, including the President’s Medal of the Municipal Art Society of New York, the medal of the American Institute of Architects and the Medal of Honor of the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, awarded in recognition of what the Foundation called “the nation’s most balanced, penetrating and poetic analyses of architecture and design.” In May 1996, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presented him with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Preservation Achievement Award in recognition of the impact of his writing on historic preservation in New York.

Mateu Hernández Maluquer

CEO, Barcelona Global

Mateu Hernández is the CEO of Barcelona Global, a non profit, private and independent association made up of more than 1.000 members with the mission to make Barcelona one of the best cities in the world for talent and economic activity.

International expert on local development, he is and has been advisor of cities like NY, Oslo, Torino and London. Former CEO for economic development for the city of Barcelona and its local development agency.

Manvendra Singh Shekhawat

Managing Director, The MRS Group

Manvendra is a quintessential explorer, an “all-in” entrepreneur and a creator at heart. His fascination for distant lands, their heritage and extraordinary stories led him to establish boutique hotels; Suryagarh-Jaisalmer, Narendra Bhawan-Bikaner and Mary Budden Estate- Binsar.

In 2013 he formed an alliance with local communities of Rajasthan to address systemic problems of the region and founded, The Love foundation. Manvendra’s deepest quest is to understand and innovate on the ‘how to elevate living’ and so, he spends most of his time on the site of his sandbox project Dhun; a habitat designed for 8500 people, who seek community living, continuous learning and holistic well-being to maximise their truest potential. Over the last 8 years, with his team he has transformed 500 acres of barren land to a thriving ecosphere.

Gracen Chungath

Senior Vice President, Destination Development, Destination Canada

Gracen Chungath is the Senior Vice President, Destination Development at Destination Canada and leads the organization’s pan-Canadian strategy for Destination Development focusing on investment, strategic partnerships, stewardship and capacity building.

Gracen holds an MSc in Public Policy from the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and an MBA in Marketing from Creighton University, Omaha, USA. She is highly committed to her community, having given her time to many non-profit boards including the Vancouver based Writer’s Exchange, Immigrant Employment Council of BC, Granville Island Council etc.

Oliver Lang

CEO, and Co-Founder, Intelligent City

Oliver Lang is CEO and Co-Founder of Intelligent City. He is a graduate of Columbia University and TU Berlin, with studies at the ETSA Barcelona. He is an industry leading and award-winning entrepreneur, architect, and technology developer. He is also co-founder and principal of LWPAC, a Governor General’s Medal award winning architectural design firm.

Intelligent City, based in Vancouver Canada, is an urban housing technology company with the mission to empower people to live better, address housing affordability while building net zero buildings.The company recently completed a $30M investment round to accelerate R&D and project delivery of its Platforms for Life technologies.

Anupam Yog

Vice President, Placemaking, Resonance

From his base in Singapore, Anupam Yog is a global expert, entrepreneur and trusted adviser to cities, companies, universities and charities, consulting on inclusive and mindful citymaking for the real estate, technology, higher education and social impact industries. A longtime entrepreneur, Anupam established Mirabilis Advisory and the consultancy Inclusive Citymaking Solutions, where his clients ranged from the Mayor of London to the San Francisco-based Bay Area Council, India’s Ministry of Urban Development, the World Bank and the World Wildlife Foundation for Nature, amongst others.

Anupam was invited by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities to join its World Cities Summit-Young Leaders community from which he developed and teaches Inclusive Citymaking for city leaders and managers.

An avid mindfulness practitioner, Anupam is a co-investigator of an ongoing academic study on Mindfulness in Cities, which is designed to help develop a Conscious Cities Index in partnership with UCL’s Urban Innovation & Policy Lab.

Anupam was part of the core curatorial team of the inaugural virtual WRLDCTY Festival.

Angela Silver

Artist

Angela Silver is a visual artist and co-laureate of the international design competition Places des Montréalaises in Montreal. As project partner with Lemay Architecture, she led the commemorative strategies for PDM translated at The Place of the Women of Montreal. Facing Montreal city hall at Champ des Mars, the prominent public memory project was germinated by the Council of Montreal Women. Currently, she is writing her dissertation, Agents of Inscription: Women’s Writing as Counter Monument at Place des Montréalaises as PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. Her visual arts practice examines notions of absence through the residue of language. Using artifacts from writing systems, she seeks to restructure and reorder language systems. Drawing on performance, she re-tools obsolete writing objects as a strategy to reconsider speech, writing and communication itself. Her work has been exhibited at DAC in Brooklyn, DARE-DARE, Quebec, Beverly, Toronto, Rome, Calgary, Pittsburgh, and the Netherlands. Her research has been generously supported by a J.W. McConnell Fellowship and a Social Sciences Humanities Research Council Fellowship. She has taught art methodologies to architecture students at Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University since 2014. Her work can be found at angelasilver.com.

Tim Hasid

Director of Placemaking, Resonance

Tim brings a mapmaker’s rigor and a placemaker’s passion to Resonance’s proprietary research, contributing to tourism planning, urban development, and placemaking projects. A Master of Science in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development at University of Bordeaux, Tim also has a BSc in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Cardiff.

Hwang Yu-Ning

Chief Planner & Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Urban Redevelopment Authority Singapore

As Chief Planner, Yu-Ning oversees Singapore’s urban planning. She has spent more than two decades in Singapore’s public service and has served in various roles including with the Strategy Group of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of National Development.

Yu-Ning is a global governing trustee of the Urban Land Institute and a member of its Asia-Pacific executive committee. She is also a fellow of the Singapore Institute of Planners, a board member of Singapore’s Science Centre, Land Transport Authority and the Board of Management of CHIJ Schools. In addition, she is on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Singapore-ETH Centre Governing Board for the Future Cities Lab (FCL) Global Research Programme.Her academic background is in architecture, urban planning and public policy with degrees from the National University of Singapore and Harvard University.

Sofie Kvist

Project Lead, Gehl

Sofie Kvist was trained in Urban Design at Aarhus School of Architecture, in Denmark. With +15 years of experience working across the globe, –– from Scandinavia and Europe to Asia, Australia, and the Americas –– she joins her passion for people-centered design at a variety of scales –– from public realm strategies to urban transformation, to public space design. Ms. Kvist strongly believes that user-oriented design at all scales begins with an understanding of what people need, want, and care about: without people and process, there is no project. Currently, she is the Consultant Associate Project Lead for The Master Plan for the Future of Stephen Avenue in Calgary, Redevelopment of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and Berkeley Civic Center, among others. She brings her expertise in active mobility, placemaking, neighborhood transformation, and development to each of her projects. Using a combination of prototyping and engagement, Ms. Kvist is skilled at reaching stakeholder consensus at strategic points throughout the project cycle. Ms. Kvist is from Copenhagen, and currently lives in San Francisco where she works for Gehl Studio.

Regina Myer

President, Downtown Brooklyn Group

Regina Myer is President of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP), a not-for-profit local development corporation that serves as the primary champion for Downtown Brooklyn as a world-class business, cultural, educational, residential, and retail destination.

Until 2016, Regina served as President of Brooklyn Bridge Park. During her nine years overseeing the Park project – an historic public investment into one of the largest public works in the City – Myer oversaw the dramatic transformation of 1.3 miles of industrial waterfront into one of New York City’s most popular destinations and one of the most lauded urban parks in the country.

Philippe Chiambaretta

Architect and Founder, PCA-Stream

After a scientific and economic training at the École des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and at MIT in Boston, and an experience in strategic consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton, Philippe Chiambaretta directed for nine years the international activities of Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in Paris. Graduated from the National School of Architecture Paris Belleville in 2000, he created PCA-STREAM, a research and architectural creation agency characterized by the synergy between thinking and doing. Resolutely focused on innovation, the city of tomorrow and new uses, the agency now has a multidisciplinary team of 90 employees with varied profiles (architects, urban planners, designers, engineers, researchers, publishers …) capable of understanding and responding to the increasingly complex issues of the contemporary world.

Andy Lantz

Co-CEO and Partner, RIOS

Andy Lantz is an architect and visionary leader directing groundbreaking design solutions. As Co-CEO, he drives the creative energy of RIOS, while strengthening both design and business strategy.His depth of experience is all-encompassing of multidisciplinary design as he influences teams across the firm with his perspectives and point of view for achieving dynamic experiences through design.

For over a decade, Andy’s work has served an impressive roster of clients and projects – from competition- winning places that enhance the public realm along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood and along the banks of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, to the Spotify Los Angeles Headquarters, a new media content production facility in Los Angeles. For many years, he has led the industry in envisioning the future of work with market-ready products and forward thinking design approaches that reframe potential in workplace design.

Sarah Walsh

Senior Design Manager, Global Design, Marriott International

Sarah Walsh is a Senior Design Manager at Marriott International’s Global Design team with a focus on EDITION and W brands. Recent hotel openings include The Reykjavík EDITION and The Tampa EDITION with upcoming projects such as The Red Sea EDITION.

Sarah is a licensed architect and member of the AIA and USGBC. She graduated from Pratt Institute and Ecoles d’Art Américanes de Fontainebleau. She is the recipient of Boutique Design’s 2021 Class of Boutique 18. Her passion lies in creating guest experiences around the world that unite architecture, interior design, lighting, art, landscaping, and music with efficient operations to form successful hotels that help define the cities in which they exist.

Fiona Cousins

Americas Region Chair, Fellow, Group Board, Arup

Fiona Cousins is the Chair of the Americas Region at Arup. She is an Arup Fellow and a member of the Group Board. She specializes in working with a broad range of stakeholders to establish clear and decisive direction that supports project teams and organizations in achieving sustainable goals. She is deeply committed to improving the impact of Arup’s projects, using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a guide and brings a range of expertise to this commitment. Fiona is a mechanical engineer and sustainability consultant by profession and spent the early part of her career engaged in HVAC design with a specialization in high-performance design. She has led and delivered many complex interdisciplinary projects with multiple stakeholders. She has also engaged extensively with industry organizations specializing in sustainable outcomes, resilience, and design, as both a volunteer and strategic consultant.

Edward Ng

Professor of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Edward is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Architecture. He obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge and worked as an architect before entering academia. Edward specialises in green building, environmental and sustainable design and urban climatology for city planning. He is also an environmental consultant to the Hong Kong government; works with governments and agencies in Singapore and Macau, as well as a number of Chinese cities, on urban climatic maps; and collaborates with public health colleagues to investigate the impact of city design and climate change on urban living.

Christine Loh

Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Christine Loh is the Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment, at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining HKUST in 2018, she was the Undersecretary for the Environment at the HKSAR Government. Between 2019-20, she was the Advisor to the HKSAR Chief Executive Office on shaping climate and environmental cooperation within the Greater Bay Area. Christine is a lawyer by training and a commodities trader by profession, who has also had long experience as a legislator, and policy analyst. She serves on the boards of CDP Worldwide, Global Maritime Forum, New Forests Pty Limited, and Towngas Smart Energy Company Limited. She is Sustainability Advisor to Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Senior Advisor to Teneo, and a member of BASF’s Stakeholder Advisory Council. She is a published author of many academic and popular works on sustainability, politics, and history.

Micah Kotch

Partner, Blackhorn Ventures

Micah Kotch is a Partner at Blackhorn Ventures investing in early-stage companies leveraging resource efficiency and digital infrastructure to transform our economy. He previously served as Founding Partner of climate investment syndicate C3, and Managing Director of URBAN-X for MINI/BMW, the leading accelerator for startups reimagining city life where he built a portfolio of 70+ pre-seed and seed stage companies in mobility, energy, real estate, and urban infrastructure. He is a Next City Vanguard Fellow and a member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network.

Harmen van Sprang

CEO, Sharing Cities Alliance

Harmen van Sprang is the co-founder (a.k.a. father) of two wonderful teenage daughters. Seeing them grow up in this decisive decade, his main motivation is to do everything he (and we) can to fix the future of this next generation. As the co-founder and CEO of the Sharing Cities Alliance, Harmen works with conscious and committed urban changemakers from leading cities across the world. Together they source, share and scale cutting-edge solutions to accelerate towards more innovative, equitable and sustainable communities and cities. Since early 2022, Harmen also leads a series called ‘Metaverse & The City’, involving both cities and companies to explore how the metaverse affects the way we live, work and play and what this emerging phenomenon means for citizens and clients.

Cecilia Kushner

Chief Strategy Officer, NYCEDC

Cecilia Kushner is NYCEDC’s Chief Strategy Officer, a role in which she leads multidisciplinary teams to deliver projects and programs focused on developing emerging sectors equitably and building neighborhoods of economic success. Prior to her current role, Cecilia spent over a decade working for the City on a range of infrastructure, transit operations, land use, and community development programs and policies, most recently as the Executive Vice President for Planning and NYC Ferry at NYCEDC, and earlier at the Department of City Planning in the Brooklyn, Resiliency, and Executive Offices.

Chrystal Burns

Senior VP, Retail, QuadReal

Chrystal Burns joined QuadReal in February 2017, in the early days of the company’s launch.Responsible for retail portfolio performance in Western Canada, Chrystal’s key focus is redevelopment projects within the portfolio, with special attention to the $6.2 billion, 7-year transformation of Oakridge Shopping Centre into a 5 million square foot mixed use development of Oakridge Park, the epicenter of the second town centre for Vancouver.

Steven Pedigo

Professor of Practice, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas

Steven is a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the director of the LBJ Urban Lab. He is also director of research and advising for the Creative Class Group and VP, Economic Development, at Resonance Consultancy.

Thom Mahler

Director, Downtown Strategy, City of Calgary

Thom Mahler is the Director leading The City of Calgary’s Downtown Strategy team – the stewards of The City’s $200+ million investment to build a thriving, future-focused downtown. By advancing Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan, the team will transform downtown from the traditional 9 to 5 business district to a vibrant city centre by: offering incentives for converting empty office space to residential units and other uses; programming and activating downtown public spaces to promote vibrancy; and kickstarting public space capital projects to support thriving downtown neighbourhoods.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Chef and restaurateur

Though Jean-Georges Vongerichten is one of the world’s most famous chefs, his skills extend far beyond the kitchen. A savvy businessman and restaurateur, Jean-Georges is responsible for the operation and success of over 62 restaurants worldwide. Jean-Georges’ earliest memories are of food. Born and raised in Alsace, France, he began training in a work-study program at Auberge de l’Ill as an apprentice to Chef Paul Haeberlin, then went on to work under Paul Bocuse and Master Chef Louis Outhier at L’Oasis in southern France. With this impressive three-star Michelin background, Jean-Georges traveled to Asia to continue his training. It was during this time spent working and traveling throughout Asia that Jean-Georges developed his love for the exotic and aromatic flavors of the East. His culinary vision has redefined industry standards and revolutionized the way we eat.

Sharon Landes-Fischer

CEO, Tel Aviv Global

Sharon Landes-Fischer is the CEO of Tel Aviv Global, a municipal company, directed toward making the city more accessible to the world and facilitating its quantum leap in the global arena, achieved in cooperation with municipal, national and private partners. The company focuses on three main pillars needed for global economic growth: Tourism, Economic Development, Brand Marketing & Communications as engines for global economic growth. Sharon’s position includes formulating the company’s global strategy and leading the Tel Aviv brand to new heights.

Robin Guenther

Principal, Perkins + Will

It was during a drive with her parents through downtown Detroit in 1962 that Robin realized architecture was her calling. She was just eight years old, but something about the buildings she saw made her want to grow up to design her own. What she didn’t know then is that she would design some of the most important healthcare buildings of modern times. Born and raised in the Motor City, Robin always had a drive to do the extraordinary. This yearning to be bold—to dare to challenge the status quo—is what fueled her passion for healthcare architecture. By the late ‘90s, her relentless advocacy for the use of healthy materials and her dedication to sustainability ignited a global movement. Today, hospitals around the world have been transformed from bastions of “sick care” to beacons of health. And the trend continues. We have Robin to credit for that.

Signe Kongebro

Global Design Director, Henning Larsen

Signe Kongebro is the Global Design Director of Landscape and Urbanism and founder of Henning Larsen’s sustainability department. She has been a member of Henning Larsen’s management since 2008 and is one of the driving forces behind the practice’s growing focus on sustainability in construction and resource-conscious design. In her work, Signe pioneers new methods for reducing carbon on an urban scale, as evidenced by Henning Larsen’s Fælledby project – winner of the Urban Design category of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards.

MK Leung

Principal Behaviourist, Behave

MK is passionate about creating a greener and smarter future through transdisciplinary innovations. His integrated, science-based knowledge of sustainable building design, his collaborative and design-based thinking and his inquisitive mind all allow MK to explore new perspectives, gather impactful insights and build solutions. A graduate of the University of Hong Kong and the University of Cambridge, MK has led projects that have been instrumental in advancing the green building movement in Hong Kong, including China’s first net-zero architecture for civilian use, Zero Carbon Park; and the award-winning, next generation workplace, Treehouse. He also formulates guidelines and standards for the Hong Kong Green Building Council.

Bryant Lu

Vice Chair of Ronald Lu + Partners

Bryant is a sustainability leader in the architecture and design industry. Under his leadership, RLP creates human-centric designs that connect the community, while being sustainable, climate-resilient, future-ready and that honour local culture and heritage. During his 20 at RLP, the firm has received over 300 international and local design accolades, and made major contributions through such projects as the award-winning Xiqu Centre; China’s first net-zero architecture for civilian use, Zero Carbon Park; the first real transit-oriented development in mainland China, TODTOWN; Integral, a sustainable industrial garden in Guilin, and numerous others – helping to design a better life for the community and the environment.

Elizabeth Mildwater

CEO, Greater Cities Commission

Elizabeth joined the Commission as Chief Executive Officer in January 2021.Prior to her appointment, Elizabeth was the Deputy Secretary, Greater Sydney at Transport for New South Wales where she was responsible for delivering customer-centred services and infrastructure for the Sydney metropolitan area.She’d previously held the positions of Deputy Secretary of Customer Technology and Services and Deputy Secretary of People and Corporate Services at TfNSW.

Greg Clark

Urbanist and Author

Prof Greg Clark CBE FAcSS is Chair of the Connected Places Catapult, a Board member of Transport For London and the London LE, and a former Group Advisor at HSBC. He is a Civic Leader, writer, Non-Executive Director, and Board Chair, working with Investors, Businesses, Governments, and Cities to help navigate this compelling century, inspire new collaborations, and forge new futures.

Ethan Kent

Executive Director,  PlacemakingX

Ethan Kent Co-founded PlacemakingX to network, amplify, and accelerate placemaking leadership and impact globally. Ethan has been integral to the development of placemaking as a transformative approach to economic development, environmentalism, social equity, design, digital space, and innovation.

Andrew King

Chief Design Officer, Lemay

Andrew King is a recognized leader in Canadian design practice, education and excellence. Responsible for the firm’s design leadership, he has evolved a critically recognized practice model that converges speculative practice, creative thinking and academic research.

Geerte Udo

CEO, Amsterdam & Partners

Geerte Udo is known as being a decisive connector with vision and a creative spirit.
amsterdam&partners focusses on one mayor goal: to ensure that the Amsterdam Area remains liveable and prosperous for residents, conventions, business and visitors.

The company uses data, new technologies and storytelling to build a sustainable reputation of Amsterdam Area. And they guide residents, companies, conferences and visitors to familiar and less familiar places and contributes to reducing nuisance.

Bettina Zerza

Founder and Principal, Zerza Architects

Bettina Zerza is an architect working at the intersection of data, technology, and the built environment. She is the founder of ZERZA, an international practice for architecture, design, and urbanism that explores how data will shape our cities and how autonomous buildings can contribute to a sustainable future. Digitalization is radically changing how we live, work, and interact and the biggest impact will be on our cities.

Her work has been internationally recognized and exhibited in institutions such as the Museum of the City of New York; the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; the New Museum, New York; the BMW Guggenheim Lab, in New York; the Kulturforum, Berlin; and the Bi-City Biennale Shenzhen/Hongkong.

Stephen Ritz

Founder, Green Bronx Machine

Stephen Ritz is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning educator, author of best-selling book, The Power Of A Plant and Founder of Green Bronx Machine. Known as America’s favorite teacher and 2015 Top Ten Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, Stephen is responsible for creating the first edible classroom in the world. He and his students have grown more than 165,000 pounds of vegetables in the South Bronx, were celebrated at the Obama White House three times, have been featured on the cover of TIME for KIDS, and are the subject of a new, full-feature documentary, Generation Growth.

Chris Fair

President, Resonance Consultancy

A futurist, facilitator and strategist, Chris holds a Masters degree in Studies of the Future and has married his tourism, economic development, real estate and marketing expertise with futures methodologies to create development strategies that shape the future of places around the world.

Derek Gagne

Principal, EDSA

Derek B. Gagne is a Principal at EDSA. Fueled by his global awareness and personal travels, Derek is inspired by the understanding and application of movement, space, and context. Derek manages the day-to-day operations of the New York studio.

Janera Soerel

Senior Director Global Market Development | Real Estate, IWBI

As Senior Director of Global Market Development for the Real Estate sector, Janera Soerel advises global real estate owners, developers, and operators on the best ways to embark on the WELL journey and achieve optimal health and wellbeing for their communities. She provides her clients with Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) solutions through WELL which meet their reporting requirements. Additionally, she provides strategic direction to the development of the LATAM and Multifamily markets, the execution of sector specific marketing campaigns, and the distribution of WELL thought-leadership.

Before joining IWBI, Janera was VP of Business Development and Client Management at BetterSpaces, a tenant amenities and workplace wellbeing company. Her interest in the wellness space was sparked as the Program Director at Urban Zen, Donna Karan’s foundation. Janera started her career in corporate finance at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam (NL) and Milan (IT). She has an MBA from Columbia Business School and is fluent in English, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish.

Kirby Liu

Director of Development, Lovett Commercial

Kirby is a real estate developer focused on creative projects that have city wide impacts. A Fulbright Research Scholar, Kirby previously worked as a leveraged finance banker and before studying architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Kirby graduated with distinction from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature.

Fady Atallah

Creative Director, Moment Factory

As a Creative Director at Moment Factory, Fady spends his days exploring the ways in which cutting-edge technology can capture the magic of light, sound, and movement. With a focus on the transformative power of digital technology, he leads projects that activate urban environments, through groundbreaking multimedia shows and installations that heighten the meaning of urban spaces, and breathe new life into architecture and infrastructure.

Andre Brumfield

Cities & Urban Design Leader, Design Director & Principal, Gensler

Andre Brumfield is a Principal and Design Director in Gensler’s Chicago office and serves as the firm’s Global Cities + Urban Design Leader, applying his 23 years of experience in revitalizing and repositioning urban environments to shape equitable, accessible communities. His extensive portfolio comprises city-wide master planning and high-density, urban-infill to emerging urban district redevelopment, mixed income housing, and neighborhood and community revitalization. Andre’s visionary, yet realistic revitalization plans have been successfully implemented in economically challenged areas throughout the world. Andre is a member of the Chicago Plan Commission and on the Board of Trustees for Chicago Architecture Center.

Kristina Lao

Actor & Advocate

Kristina Lao is a multi-national touring actor and musician with an active commitment to social betterment and systemic change initiatives. Alongside playing to audiences of thousands on stage, and appearing in network television, commercials and audiobooks, Kristina devotes almost half of her working time to advocate for social justice and sustainable careers in Media & Entertainment. She has helped raise $1.2M in music-specific funding for the Province of British Columbia, placed over 1000 post-secondary graduates in part and full-time careers in Music, and hosts a TV-licensed interview series, Bombshell Brunches, centred on Health, Wealth and Life Design for creative thinkers. Kristina is the first Hong Konger to graduate from the London School of Musical Theatre and holds a Degree with Distinction in International Business from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Kristina is of Chinese/Nepalese and British/Polish descent and is currently based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples, otherwise called Vancouver, B.C.

Cara Eckholm

Chief Revenue Officer, Nabr

Cara is on the executive team at Nabr, a sustainable urban housing company backed by Bjarke Ingels Group. Cara joined Nabr from Zigg Capital, the largest real estate tech venture fund in New York and the lead of Nabr’s seed round. Cara previously worked at Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, and she began her career in Copenhagen working on LEGO’s five-year R&D plan. Cara graduated from Princeton where she wrote the best thesis in architecture and she was at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business before dropping out to join Nabr. In 2014, Cara was a National Geographic Explorer, and her writing about cities has been featured in numerous media outlets. Outside of work, Cara serves on the Mayor and Governor’s “New” New York Blue Ribbon Panel, focused on revitalizing New York’s central business districts.

Jorick Beijer

Director, Blossity

Jorick Beijer is an urbanist and co-founder of Blossity. Blossity turns trends into tactics for pioneering corporates, consumer brands and city governments. Ongoing work includes the EMEA HQ for Nike, the Global HQ of Siemens Healthineers and Brainport Smart District.

Gabriel Metcalf

CEO, Committee of Sydney

Gabriel Metcalf is the CEO of the Committee for Sydney, a research and advocacy organisation whose mission is to make Sydney the best city in the world.

Previously, he served as the President and CEO of SPUR, an urban policy think tank for the San Francisco Bay Area. Gabriel led SPUR through a major expansion of its work, staffing, funding, geographic footprint, and impact.

Gabriel has led initiatives on housing, transport, economic development, and climate adaptation, among other topics.

Gabriel earned a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design. From 2016-2018 he held the Cornish Endowed Chair in City and Regional Planning at U.C. Berkeley, where he taught “Cities and Social Change.”

A frequent speaker and writer on planning and policy topics, some of his publications include Sand Castles Before the Tide: Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities; Four Scenarios for Year 2070; Learning from Tokyo; The San Francisco Exodus; and The Great Dithering. He is also the author of Democratic by Design (St. Martin’s Press).

Jeff Shapack

Founder & CEO, Shapack Partners

Jeff is the Founder & CEO of Shapack Partners, a Fulton Market-based, multi-asset class real estate development company that acquires, repositions, develops and invests in properties and neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Shapack began his career in real estate 22 years ago, developing Barneys New York in the Gold Coast and Apple in Lincoln Park. Today, with his expertise in acquisition, design, leasing, development and brand creation, Shapack Partners focuses on all asset classes including office, residential, hospitality, retail and restaurants.

In 2014, Shapack Partners created Fulton Market District, with the conversion of a former leather belt factory into Soho House Chicago, serving as the neighborhood’s catalyst. Jeff is an instrumental force behind transforming Fulton Market into a Central Social District and the fastest-growing office submarket in the United States. Shapack seized the opportunity to develop and bring to the neighborhood innovative brands, hotels, start-ups and headquartered companies centered on food, design, hospitality, art, culture, technology, financial services and commerce. Shapack Partners projects include Soho House, WeWork Fulton Market flagship, The Parker Fulton Market, Shake Shack, The Hoxton Hotel, 811 Fulton, and 167 Green (a new construction, fully leased 750,000 gross square foot office building with a diverse tenant mix and an NBA basketball court). Shapack Partners is continuing to develop Fulton Market as well as other sites within the City of Chicago.

Jeff graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a former board member of the Chicago Artists Coalition and currently sits on the boards of World Business Chicago and TPIRC (Translational Pulmonary & Immunology Research Center) SoCal Food Allergy in Long Beach, California. He is also a member of The Economic Club of Chicago and a strategic advisor to CHAMPS Male Mentoring and the No More Violence campaign on the south and west sides of Chicago. Jeff lives in the Glencoe with his wife and three daughters.

Gary Pooni

President, Pooni Group

In his role as president, Gary drives the firm’s growth and guides major client projects as strategic lead. With over twenty years of planning-related experience, he has spearheaded some of the country’s most significant projects throughout Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Sea to Sky corridor, Alberta and Ontario. His expertise includes strategic guidance, policy planning, public consultation and entitlement negotiation. Often recognized as the man behind the Lower Mainland’s most complex projects, Gary was listed as a “change-maker and power player shaping our world” in Vancouver Magazine’s 2022 Power 50 List.

Marion Waller

Advisor to Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor of Paris

Marion Waller is Deputy Director of the Cabinet of Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of urban planning, architecture, attractiveness, economic development and Greater Paris projects.

In particular, she piloted “Réinventer Paris” and the calls for innovative projects that followed. In parallel, she is involved in environmental philosophy and in 2016 published “Artefacts naturels” (Editions de l’Eclat), a book on ecological restoration and the possibilities of human re-inhabitation of the environment. She teaches at Sciences Po Paris and at the University of Paris Est-Créteil and is passionate about environmental ethics applied to territories.

Arsha Cazazian-Clement

Director of Global Real Estate, Shearman & Sterling

Arsha Cazazian is a seasoned real estate executive with over 2 decades of experience planning, executing and leading teams for large-scale public and private development projects.

In her current role as Director of Global Real Estate for Shearman & Sterling, LLP., she is responsible for the firm’s workplace strategy, CRE technology integration, delivery and management of the partnership’s 1 million sq.ft global real estate portfolio spanning 23 offices across 5 continents.

Prior to joining Shearman & Sterling, Arsha managed growth for JLL’s Project & Development Service line maintaining a deep focus and passion for sustainable, scalable and impactful development with particular concentration in underserved areas in the US and abroad.

Eran Chen

Founding Principal and Executive Director, ODA Architects

Eran Chen is the founding principal and design director of ODA. Since establishing the office in 2007 he has become one of the most prolific architects in New York. Chen has gained a reputation for delivering designs that are innovative as well as socially and fiscally responsible. His work has been widely published around the world and recognized amongst others by the American Institute of Architects and the Society of American Registered Architects. Chen graduated with honors from the Bezalel School of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where he serves on the board and as guest lecturer. He is a frequent speaker at design and development forums, as well as architecture schools including Columbia University, Clemson University, Syracuse University, Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, and The Technion in Haifa.

Recent projects include the renovation of the former Postkantoor in Rotterdam, the conversion of the Arbuckle Sugar Refinery at 10 Jay into offices and the forthcoming 416-4120 Kent Ave towers in Williamsburg’s Waterfront. His writings on architecture have been published in ODA’s latest book, Unboxing New York.

Dr. Bahiyyah Maroon

Author & CEO, Polis Institute

Dr. Bahíyyah Maroon is CEO of the social research & engagement firm, Polis Institute. A nationally recognized thought leader on equity and social change, Dr. Maroon has provided strategic insights to Fortune 50 companies, Harvard University, the Dept. of Justice, Dept. of Labor, and a host of philanthropic, business, and municipal entities. She is the author of the forthcoming book Black LIves, American Love (Chicago Review Press), and has appeared in Women’s Health, Self, Bustle, and the NY Times.

Andrew Kimball

President & CEO, NYCEDC

An accomplished executive, thought leader, and communicator in the public and private sectors, Andrew Kimball is proud to currently serve as President & CEO of the New York Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). I’m a passionate native New Yorker who is focused on growing a vibrant, resilient and inclusive economy for all.

Mary Rowe

CEO, Canadian Urban Institute

Mary is a leading urban advocate and civil society leader who has worked in cities across Canada and the United States. Mary comes to CUI with several years of experience as an urban advocate and community leader, including serving as Executive Vice President of the Municipal Art Society of New York (MASNYC), one of America’s oldest civic advocacy organizations focused on the built environment. A mid-career fellowship with the US-based blue moon fund led her to New Orleans where she worked with national philanthropy, governments and local communities to support rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Prior, Mary was President of the Canadian platform Ideas That Matter, a convening and publishing program based on the work of renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs.

Mary has been a frequent contributor to national and international city-building programs, including UN Habitat and the World Urban Forum. She brings an extensive international network of practitioners from government, industry, community activism, and the city-building professions to strengthen CUI under her leadership.

Jay Cross

President, The Howard Hughes Corporation

Jay Cross leads the Howard Hughes Corp. in developing some of the most innovative planned communities in the country, with decades of experience delivering large-scale, mixed-use real estate projects.

Cross joined HHC in 2020 from the presidency of Related Hudson Yards, where he led development of the $20 billion project that redefined lower Manhattan. As president of the New York Jets, he spearheaded the development of MetLife Stadium in a joint venture with the New York Giants to build the $1.3 billion dual-team NFL stadium.

Cross served as president of business operations for the NBA’s wildly popular Miami Heat. He led the development of the $213 million American Airlines Arena—creating a public-private partnership with Miami Dade County, a $185 million bond offering and downtown Miami’s rebirth. Mr. Cross also developed the $265 million Air Canada Centre that houses Toronto’s NBA and NHL franchises in one of North America’s finest arena sites.

Thomas Heatherwick

Founder, Heatherwick Studio

Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose prolific and varied work over two decades is characterized by its ingenuity, inventiveness and originality. Defying the conventional classification of design disciplines, Thomas founded Heatherwick Studio in 1994 to bring the practices of design, architecture and urban planning together in a single workspace. Based in London, Heatherwick Studio focuses on designing for the human experience and is currently working on approximately 30 projects in ten countries, including new headquarters for Google in Silicon Valley and London (in collaboration with BIG); Toranomon-Azabudai — a six-hectare mixed-use development in the center of Tokyo; and Airo – an electric car that cleans the air as it drives. The studio has recently completed Little Island, a park and performance space on the Hudson River in New York; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; and Coal Drops Yard, a major new retail district in King’s Cross, London. His forthcoming book, Humanise, will be published by Penguin.

Helle Søholt

Founding Partner & CEO, Gehl

Helle is Founding Partner and CEO of Gehl. She started the company with Professor Jan Gehl in 2000. Through her leadership, strategic and organizational talent, the office has developed a knowledge base and experience portfolio that is respected internationally in the field of urban design and urban development. Over the years of its existence, Gehl has been awarded multiple prizes and recognitions for their contribution to making cities more livable and sustainable around the world.

Michael Turner

President, Oxford Properties

Michael Turner is President of Oxford Properties, a leading global real estate investor, asset manager and business builder and Global Head of Real Estate for the OMERS pension plan. Michael is Chair of Oxford’s Leadership team and Investment Committee and is responsible for the overall guidance and strategic direction of the global team and $80 billion*, ~164 million* square foot business.

Lynn M. Ross

Founder & Principal , Spirit for Change Consulting

Lynn M. Ross is a nationally recognized urbanist, strategist, and founder of Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC where she works with multi-sector teams on a mission to create the equitable policies and practices that sustain just places. Lynn believes that everyone deserves a place to thrive and that the best approaches to just places are co-created, rooted in lived experience, equitable by design, and intentionally inclusive.

Brooks Rainwater

Director, National League of Cities

Brooks Rainwater is the senior executive and director of the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Center for City Solutions. Rainwater drives the organization’s research agenda, community engagement efforts, and leadership education programming to help city leaders create strong local economies, safe and vibrant neighborhoods, world-class infrastructure, and a sustainable environment. Rainwater’s expertise is a draw for media outlets, including the TODAY Show, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and the New York Times. He also frequently contributes to publications such as Fast Company, Forbes, CityLab, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and Fortune.

Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

Urban Anthropologist, Think.urban

Katrina is a lecturer, researcher, and advocate for humanist cities. She is a consultant through her firm THINK.urban and adjunct professor for the Masters of Urban Strategy at Drexel University, as well as guest lecturer for the Masters in Urbanism program at the Royal Institute for Technology in Stockholm, Sweden (KTH). As an applied urban anthropologist, her work focuses on human behavior in public space and the relationship between behavior and design. Through the use of “spatial ethnographies”, she utilizes principles of user experience research and design to assess the effectiveness of urban form on the human condition, physically and psychologically. Lectures include instruction on qualitative research methods, observation techniques, survey research, and ancient urban history with an emphasis on public space.

William Ruh

CEO, Lendlease Digital

Mr. William Ruh is the Chief Executive Officer for Lendlease Digital. In this role, he is building a new business to help transform the real estate industry. LendLease Digital is developing the world’s first set of Autonomous Building products to automate design, supply chain, construction and operations.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Magna International and CADMakers. He is the Vice Chair of the Board at the American Chamber of Commerce of Australia, member of the board of the Building 4.0 CRC research program in Australia, and is a founder and Chair of the Digital Twin Consortium.

Manish Vora

CEO, Museum of Ice Cream

Manish Vora is Co-Ceo and Founder of Museum of Ice Cream. MOIC believes in creating beautiful and shareable environments that foster IRL interaction and URL connections, providing fun, multi-sensorial expressions of ice cream that cater to the appetites of our generation. MOIC has locations in New York, Austin, Singapore and Chicago.

Claire Johnston

Managing Director, Lendlease for Google Real Estate Development

Claire Johnston serves as Managing Director for Lendlease’s Google Real Estate Development venture, a 15 year, US $15bn (AUD $20bn) joint undertaking of master planning, entitlement and development of Google’s Bay Area landholdings in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View, California. Lendlease estimates it will develop up to 15 million square feet of residential, retail, hospitality and associated community uses within these four new neighborhoods.

Jason Long

Partner, OMA

Jason Long is a Partner at OMA who leads its New York office and diverse portfolio in the Americas. Since joining the firm in 2003, Jason has brought a research-driven, interdisciplinary approach to a wide range of OMA’s projects internationally. A number of projects under Jason’s direction take a creative approach to adaptive reuse and preservation, including POST Houston, the transformation of a former post office warehouse into a mixed-use hub; the conversion of a historic parking garage in New York City into a new synagogue; the renovation of the historic Fitzgerald Building at University of Toronto into the university’s administration center; the adaptive reuse of Jersey City’s historic Pathside Building into Centre Pompidou x Jersey City; and LANTERN, the reimagination of a former commercial bakery into a community arts hub in Detroit.

Alexa Arena

Senior Director of Real Estate Development, Google

As Senior Director of Real Estate Development, Alexa Arena oversees Google’s entire portfolio of ground-up, mixed-use developments in the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and San Jose, where she leads the strategy and execution of district-scale developments that create inclusive, sustainable places where Google and local communities can thrive. Alexa ensures that each project addresses complex ecological, environmental, and social issues by integrating affordable housing, social infrastructure programs, sustainable designs, and placemaking activities. In addition, Alexa and her team work closely with local city governments, community members, and design and development partners to deliver districts that are truly user-centered, forward-thinking, and built with the future in mind.

Patrik Schumacher

Principal, Zaha Hadid Architects

Patrik Schumacher is principal of Zaha Hadid Architects. He studied philosophy, mathematics and architecture in Bonn, Stuttgart and London and received his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Science in Klagenfurt. In 1996 he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the AA in London where he continues to teach. Since 2007 he has been promoting Parametricism as an epochal style for the 21st Century. In 2010/12 he published “The Autopoiesis of Architecture” in two Volumes and recently guest-edited AD – Parametricism 2.0, emphasizing the societal relevance of Parametricism. His current research and design interest is focused on the metaverse and the integration of real and virtual communication spaces.

Will Craig

Principal, Kasian

Will Craig is a Principal and Global Chair of the Lifescape studio at Kasian and leads the national Commercial sector, serving clients around the world from their offices in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria. Will is an international city-builder leading efforts to enrich human experiences and ground-level environments in dense, urban settings. Through Lifescape, a human-centric design approach, his team creates memorable ground-level experiences for buildings and communities. Will is a licensed architect with a track record of over 11 million square feet of built work in mixed use, office, residential, cultural and institutional projects.