Dr. Ann Aerts has been Head of the Novartis Foundation since January 2013, where she has played a key role in devising new policy recommendations.

Before her current role, Ann was Franchise Medical Director Critical Care for Novartis Pharma in Basel, and Therapeutic Area Head Cardiovascular and Metabolism in Novartis Pharma Belgium.

Previous to joining Novartis, she served as Director of the Lung and Tuberculosis Association in Belgium from 2002 to 2006 and as Head of the Health Services Department of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva and Health Coordinator the ICRC in several countries.

Ann started her overseas career in 1991 as a District Health Officer in Angola and worked as an emergency physician in Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, RDC, East-Timor, Sudan and Ivory Coast.

Max Anderson joined the NewCities Foundation in September 2015 after a 35-year career as an art museum curator and director, and is past chairman of the Dallas Art District in Dallas, Texas. He has long sought to address challenges facing the cultural sector, from operational sustainability to programmatic relevance, transparent business practices, community engagement, ownership disputes, and the impact of digital platforms on communications. His role at the NewCities Foundation focuses on how digital platforms can improve the lives of city dwellers internationally.

He graduated with an A.B. with Highest Distinction in Art History from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and received his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in art history from Harvard University. He is the author of dozens of publications including the monograph Pompeian Frescoes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  along with The Quality Instinct: Seeing Art Through a Museum Director’s Eye (American Alliance of Museums, distributed by the University of Chicago Press). His current book project is Antiquities: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2016).

Anderson is a Research Affiliate in Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was decorated as a Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Knight Commander in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) in 1990, and decorated with the rank of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic) in 2010.

Bernise Ang is co-founder and Executive Director of Zeroth Labs, an experimental innovation lab and consultancy which maps complexity of policy issues, uncovers behavioural insights, and applies them to tackle messy public policy challenges.

Though trained in psychology, she makes prolific connections between different worlds - technology, business, design, society, sustainability, and the human condition. This lateral thinking is embodied in Syinc, where change is brought about in ways that are adaptive, authentic, and context-relevant.

With a professional consulting background in change management, Bernise is familiar with strategy planning, organisation development, human interaction, and the intersect of all 3 for systems change. She has served clients from diverse sectors, such as MICA, TED speaker Sasa Vucinic, Singapore Airlines - among others.

Bernise is an Emeritus Board member of the International Youth Foundation, Asia21 Young Leader of the Asia Society, Board Director of the International Young Professionals Foundation, World Cities Summit Young Leader, and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Tunji J. Asaolu is currently the Nigerian Representative as well as the Chairperson, Social Affairs & Health (cluster committee) of the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU-ECOSOCC), prior to that, President/Executive Director of African Youths International Development Foundation (AFYIDEF). He hails from South West Geo-Political Zone of NIGERIA; he possessed HND in Business Administration & Management from the then Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo in 2000, (currently Rufus Giwa Polytechnic). Dr. Tunji Asaolu also attended University of Abuja where he possessed B.Sc Degree in Accounting Management in 2007. He also obtained Masters Degree in the faculty of Life Management & Human Resources Development from Life Leadership University, California, USA in 2009. In July 2014, Dr. Tunji obtained Honour Code Certificate in SOCIAL JUSTICE (Online Learning) from Harvard University. Dr. Tunji Asaolu is a full member of Institute of Public Diplomacy and Management; and member of West Africa Civil Society Institute; he is also a Fellow Director of Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations.

Vera Baboun was elected Mayor of the City of Bethlehem in October 2012, to be the first woman Mayor of the city since its inception.

Mayor Baboun is also Member of the Supreme Presidential Commission for the Affairs of Churches in Palestine; Secretary-General of the Association of the Palestinian Local Authorities; and Chairman of the Permanent Conference of the Historic Cities of the Mediterranean, among other positions.

Prior to this, she was General Director of the Greek Catholic School in Beith Sahour (2010-2012), and authorized researcher in the network GRACE for gender research for women's empowerment in the Middle East.

Mayor Baboun submitted several papers on issues of gender equality in a large number of civil and social organizations both local and international.

She has received various awards, including the Pompeo Sarnelli in recognition of her role in serving the city of Bethlehem and supporting its youth; the title and the insignia of the "Star of the Knights of Italy" by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano; and the Medal of High Uniqueness of the City of Paris by Anne Hidalgo Mayor of Paris.

Mayor Baboun has been the holder of the message of peace in different conferences worldwide.

Priscilla Baek is Policy Lead for Asia and Head of Policy for Korea at Uber, a smartphone app that is transforming the way cities move. In her role, she is responsible for building partnerships with governments and other stakeholders to create innovative, safe and sustainable mobility options for cities.

Prior to Uber, she was Senior Manager of Public Affairs at Mitsui & Co., a Japanese trading and investment company, where she specialized in political risk management and policy analysis. She also served as an Advisor at the US Department of Treasury, where she developed policies to mitigate future financial crises, and Manager of Policy and Programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where she was responsible for managing a national campaign for the passage of the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Priscilla has served on the board of directors and advisory council of the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Asian American public service leaders. She holds a BA in Public Policy and Spanish from Duke University and a masters in Korean Studies from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Jonathan Ballon is vice president in the Internet of Things Group (IOTG) and general manager of the Markets and Channels Acceleration Division at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for managing and driving revenue across a portfolio of growth segments, while also incubating new sectors and business models. In addition, he is responsible for driving scale across all IoT segments through various channels and routes to market.

Prior to joining Intel, Ballon served as chief strategy officer and chief operations officer for General Electric’s Industrial Internet business, and served as corporate vice president at Cisco leading the office of strategy and planning. He presently also serves as an advisor and board member to several Silicon Valley based startups and accelerators.

Ballon holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego, summa cum laude, and an MBA degree in strategic planning and operations management from the University of Pittsburgh.

Howard Bamsey is the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund. He was appointed by the GCF Board at its 14th meeting and took office on 10 January 2017. He is the second Executive Director of the Fund.

Ambassador Bamsey has spent most of his career in international diplomacy and public service. He is a widely recognized negotiator in the global response to climate change who co-chaired the United Nations ‘Dialogue on Long-term Cooperative Action on Climate Change by Enhancing Implementation of the Convention’.

Mr. Bamsey’s role in this body helped shape a strategic approach to advance the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including on adaptation and the use of technology and market mechanisms.

As a representative of the government of Australia, he served in main United Nations centres, including New York, Geneva and Vienna. During his 30 years in the Australian Foreign Service he also served as Special Adviser on Sustainable Development to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and as Special Adviser on Green Growth to AusAID. Earlier in his career, he was Australia’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, a function held at Ambassadorial level, as well as a Deputy Secretary in the Australian Public Service and CEO of the Australian Greenhouse Office.

Before joining the Green Climate Fund, Howard Bamsey was Honorary Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. Concurrently, he was Special Adviser to Baker and McKenzie and Special Representative for GNIplus, a consortium helping countries implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to climate action.

Between 2013 and 2014, Mr. Bamsey was Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) which, like the Green Climate Fund, is based in the Republic of Korea.

Vatsal Bhatt has recently started consulting with the U.S. Green Building Council as the Director of Cities and Neighborhood Developments. He has been working as a Senior Energy Policy Analyst at the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the United States Department of Energy (USDOE).  On various national and international assignments, he helps USDOE, the US Department of State (USDOS), the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, Universities, Foundations and international Governments.  Dr. Bhatt has established the USDOE’s US-India-China Cities Partnership for sharing best practices and technologies in 2007 and provides technical assistance to the governments of India and China and state and local governments on low-carbon urban growth strategies and EcoCity planning and implementation.  He serves as a senior policy advisor to USDOS managed US-China EcoPartnerships Secretariat.  In August 2013, the Woodrow Wilson Center for Distinguished Scholars invited Dr. Bhatt to participate on a five-member panel to facilitate developing China’s Energy-Water Roadmap.  He has developed energy-water-climate change systems modeling for national, regional and urban analysis.  Dr. Bhatt is a lead author of the US Global Change Research Program’s first-ever assessment of the “Effects of Climate Change on Energy Production and Use in the United States”, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.5.

Olivier Biancarelli is married  and has four children.

He has a degree in law from la Sorbonne University and is graduated in Political Sciences from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.  Olivier is also an alumnus from the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

He began his career as Territorial Civil Servant (2000 – 2005) before being appointed Advisor to the French “Ministre de l’Intérieur” (Home Secretary). In 2007 he is appointed Advisor to the French Président de la République.

In 2012, he joined the GDF SUEZ Group, today renamed ENGIE, as Deputy Secretary-General where he created and lead the Department of Shared Services.

In 2015, he is appointed to set up a new activity: "Decentralized Solutions for Cities and Territories", at a worldwide level. Since January 2016, Olivier is the Managing Director for this activity, and a member of the Group’s operational management committee.

Dr. Biyari is the CEO of Saudi Telecom Group (STC), the largest integrated telecom operator in the MENA region with investments in Turkey, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, and UAE.

He joined the company in May 2013 as Senior Vice President (SVP) for Technology and Operations and was then promoted to Chief Operating Officer in Jan 2015. The Board of Directors unanimously elected him as Chief Executive Officer in April 2015.

Currently, Dr. Biyari is the Chairman of the SAMENA Telecom Council, an association of telecom operators in South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa. He is also involved with a number of STC subsidiaries and affiliates; he is the Chairman of Sapphire, Chairman of Intigral, Vice Chairman of VIVA Kuwait, and Vice Chairman of Oger Telecom. Previously, he served as board member of both Turk Telecom and Avea, and also Chairman of STC Solutions.

Since joining STC, Dr. Biyari has been leading a major program across STC’s different sectors aimed at transforming STC into a world-class operator and a major driver of digitization and innovation initiatives.

Prior to joining STC, he served as SVP and GM of Advanced Electronics Company, a Saudi high-tech Offset Program company. From 1990 through 1995, Dr. Biyari was a Professor of Communication Systems at the Electrical Engineering Faculty at King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals.

Dr. Biyari is a member of a number of professional organizations in addition to holding a senior membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was twice-elected Chairman of the IEEE Saudi Arabia Section.

In addition, he has lectured and published numerous papers on Communication and Information systems. He also lectured on Technology Management, Innovation as well as ICT industry-related issues.

Dr. Biyari served as a member of the Committee responsible for developing the long-term National Plan for the ICT Industry in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, he was a member of the Executive Committee responsible for KFUPM’s long-term Strategic Plan. And in 2009, the Council of Ministers elected him to the Board of Directors of the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority in Saudi Arabia on which he served until 2015.

Dr. Biyari received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering-Communication Systems from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1990, and his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from KFUPM in 1983 and 1985, respectively.

Beth Blauer is one of the nation’s leading experts on government performance programs. In March 2015, she was tapped to lead the Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University. As GovEx’s first Executive Director, Blauer and her team help governments make decisions and create policies rooted in evidence, transparent accountability, and citizen engagement.

GovEx was created in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies to support its What Works Cities initiative. Blauer and the GovEx team partner with What Works Cities to implement and enhance sustainable performance management and open data programs in 100 mid-sized American cities.

Prior to joining GovEx, Blauer led the development software tools at Socrata Inc., which help governments across the globe make connections between their data and performance. Blauer previously served as the Director of Maryland’s award winning StateStat initiative. During her tenure, StateStat was credited with important reforms that cut across all agencies and brought positive results to the State’s most critical issues, including Chesapeake Bay restoration, crime reduction, improved social service delivery, and better educational outcomes for children.

Dr. Philipp Bouteiller has been the CEO of Tegel Projekt GmbH (a subsidiary of the state of Berlin) since April 2012. His goal for the future re-use of the airport is to convert it into a lighthouse for urban technologies in Germany and Europe - a place for the best, creative and most dedicated people to meet, work, invent and experiment, in an invigorating environment.

He studied in Berlin and London and holds a PhD in International Management & Social Psychology from London School of Economics. Before his position at Tegel Projekt GmbH, he worked as a senior consultant for McKinsey & Company, Inc., then as an IT-Entrepreneur and independent strategy adviser. His work mainly focuses on high tech & innovation management, infrastructures, mobility and renewable energy.

Cha has been in the finance industry for 20+ years with various financial institutions: Citibank in New York, Yasuda Trust Bank in Tokyo, Asian Merchant Bank and CEO of Lone Star Real Estate Funds in Seoul. Since 2007, Cha’s passion for sustainability led him and his partners to establish Re‐Imagining Cities Foundation under the Korea Green Building Council non‐profit umbrella. We share a vision for our future with 100% renewable energy, clean air and a happy, healthy environment where we can all live, work and play in harmony with nature.
Cities are the problem emitting 70‐80% of the world's greenhouse gases. With increasing urbanization, we seek to make Cities part of the solution to our energy and climate crisis by accelerating green building, smart city solutions. Re-Imagining Cities Foundation focuses on the “business case of green buildings” to help cities, real estate developers and investors achieve sustainability and low carbon cities without over investing. In many cases, financial returns to developers can be enhanced when green building solutions are applied properly.

Vicky Chan founded Avoid Obvious Architects in 2012 with offices in New York and Hong Kong. The firm has been pushing sustainable buildings and cities with focus on combining art with green technology. His projects have been exhibited in 37 cities. His emerging firm has competed against OMA in 2016 for a city plan the size of Manhattan. He founded a volunteering organization to teach architecture on a weekly basis and has taught over 3,000 children about sustainable design and architecture. He believes our future will be brighter if children are more equipped with creative and sustainable thinking.

Joelle Chen is the Regional Manager of WorldGBC’s Asia Pacific Network of member Green Building Councils in 15 countries. She focuses on strengthening the green building business case for investors, advocating for healthier buildings that support wellbeing and productivity, and sharing best practices through the WorldGBC Asia Pacific Leadership in Green Building Awards, among other initiatives.

Prior to joining WorldGBC, Joelle was heading up the Smart Sustainable Cities team at the Singapore Economic Development Board, driving public-private partnerships through living lab platforms. She also previously worked as an architect, focusing on sustainable procurement and green building design.

Dr. Chernicoff is currently the Senior Manager of Global Research and Innovation for the Toyota Mobility Foundation. He defines and coordinates the foundation’s research agenda, providing technology guidance to projects.  With both near- and long-term perspectives, Dr. Chernicoff helps conceive new technology approaches that enable and improve the solutions implemented by the foundation and its partners.  He brings a strong background across energy, technology, mobility, and climate policy from his prior work as a Manager and Principle Researcher with Toyota North America’s Energy & Environmental Research Group and his eight years with the US DOT’s Research Administration.

Dr. Chernicoff earned a Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering at M.I.T., a Master of Science in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at the George Washington University.

Minsuk Cho is the founder of Seoul-based architecture firm Mass Studies. Cho graduated from Yonsei University and Columbia University, and spent his early career in New York and Rotterdam. In 1998, co-founded Cho Slade Architecture in New York. Since returning to Seoul in 2003, he has been committed to the discourse of architecture through socio-cultural and urban research, and mostly built works. He has been recognized globally, with representative works including the Pixel House, Missing Matrix: Boutique Monaco, Bundle Matrix: S-Trenue, Ann Demeulemeester Shop, Korea Pavilion: 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Daum Space.1, Osulloc Tea Stone/Innisfree, and the Southcape Owner's Club: Clubhouse, to highlight. Active beyond his architectural practice, he has co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and was the commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, which was awarded the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. In late 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, held their first ever architecture exhibition, highlighting his works in a solo exhibition titled "Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture." Cho is an active lecturer and speaker at symposiums worldwide.

Hon Lianne Dalziel (LLB) was elected as the Mayor of Christchurch in October 2013, after serving for 23 years in the New Zealand Parliament, the last four terms as the Member of Parliament for Christchurch East.

Lianne served as a Cabinet Minister in the 5th Labour Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Rt. Hon Helen Clark (1999-2008). During that time Lianne held a number of portfolios, including Immigration, Commerce, Food Safety, Women’s Affairs & Senior Citizens and associate roles in Education and Justice. After the change in government in 2008, she was elected to chair the Commerce Select Committee, which had oversight of the regulation of the non-banking finance sector.

The Christchurch East electorate was severely affected by the 2010/11 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence and Lianne played an important role in ensuring that her constituents had access to accurate information, as well as ensuring that their concerns were communicated to decision-makers. Lianne was invited to join the UNISDR’s Parliamentary Advisory Group on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2012. With this background, Lianne has become a champion of resilience, with Christchurch selected as one of the first tranche of cities to participate in the 100 Resilient Cities Network pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. Since becoming Mayor, Lianne has presented at a number of conferences including:

- 2014 Emergency Management & Business Resilience Summit, Wellington NZ

- 2014 A/NZ Disaster & Emergency Management Conference, Australia

- 2014 Understanding Risk Forum, London UK

- 2015 UN 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Japan

- 2016 People in Disasters Conference, Christchurch NZ

- 2016 SEISMICS and the City, Christchurch NZ

- 2016 FIG Conference Recovery from Disaster, Christchurch NZ

- 2016 RICS Cities in a Digital World Conference, Singapore

WhereIsMyTransport provides an open platform for integrated transport data that provides users, developers, and cities with a comprehensive look at formal and informally run public transportation options, particularly in emerging African cities.

Devin de Vries is an entrepreneur dedicated to fostering technological innovation to solve social problems in the developing world. For the last eight years he has lead a growing team inspired by a shared vision to bring technological solutions to the problem of public transport in the emerging world. WhereIsMyTransport, is a leading public transport platform and has been recognized by the Financial Times/IFC, the WWF, and Start-Up Tel Aviv. He oversees the development and execution of all strategies at the company, as well as business development, high-value partner management, global expansion, and overall product vision and strategy. With internationally awarded technical and business development skills, Devin develops and directs the vision and strategy of WhereIsMyTransport in the challenging B2G environment and has successfully grown the company from 2 team members to 42.

@mytransport

Shaishav Dharia is the Regional CEO for Palava City, New Cuffe Parade and Lodha Commercial. He is responsible for the delivery of key business goals and profitability for these markets.
He joined Lodha Group in 2010 as Head of Strategy and later moved to the role of Development Director. He has over 17 years of diverse consulting experience across leading organizations in India and the US. Prior to this, he was the Associate Principal – leader in the operations practice in India for McKinsey and Company. In his association with McKinsey at various levels, he has worked in a wide-ranging list of industries that include automotive, retail, IT, real estate and technology among others.

Earlier, he was the Vice President of Consulting with LogicTools, which is now an IBM company. He was also involved with KPMG Consulting as Manager of consumer and industrial markets where he worked with the food services and petrochemical industry.

Matias Echanove is a founding member of urbz.net, a platform for experimental urban research and action, with collaborators in Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Bogota and Geneva. The work of urbz has been exhibited at the MoMA, MAXXI, MAK and various biennales. Matias also co-directs the Institute of Urbanology and Front End gallery in Mumbai. He regularly writes articles and essay for publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, The Hindu, OUP, Strelka Press, and Domus. He studied government and economics at LSE, urban planning at Columbia University, and urban information systems at the University of Tokyo.

Wim Elfrink is the Founder and President of WPE Ventures Digitized Solutions, a security and digitization solutions business that leverages the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to drive transformational business outcomes. Elfrink is an investor, advisor, and consultant in early-stage, emerging and emerging growth companies that are enabling the digitization of society.  He actively manages a portfolio companies via board participation, strategic marketing, governance and capital structure.

Elfrink founded WPE Ventures in September 2015, after retiring from Cisco following 18 years of service. As Cisco’s Executive Vice President of Industry Solutions and Chief Globalisation Officer, he was responsible for the Industry Solutions Group, the Emerging Countries initiatives, and the company's globalisation strategy. He also led the company-wide efforts for the Internet of Things (IoT). Elfrink was an Executive Officer of the company and a member of Cisco's Operating Committee.

In 2009, Daily News & Analysis named Elfrink one of Bangalore’s 50 Most Influential People. In 2013, he received the Ambassador C. Howard Wilkins, Jr. Award from the Netherlands-America Foundation.

An Artificial Intelligence-based analytics dashboard, ZenCity tracks social media, municipal platforms and 411 telephone lines to provide city governments with real-time, actionable insights about citizens and municipal services to improve citizen experience of the city.

Tan Sri Dr. Tony Fernandes CBE, was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer of the Company in December 2001 and was re-designated as a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director on 30 June 2012 and subsequently as Non-Independent Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of the Company in November 2013. He is also a member of the Employee Share Option Scheme of the Board. He was the Financial Controller at Virgin Communications London (1987-1989) before moving on to be a Senior Financial Analyst at Warner Music International London (1989-1992), Managing Director at Warner Music Malaysia (1992-1996), Regional Managing Director, Asean (1996-1999) and Vice President, Asean at Warner Music South East Asia (1999-2001).

He was admitted as an Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 1991 and became a Fellow Member in 1996. In 1999, the Sultan of Selangor bestowed on him the title Setia Mahkota Selangor for his contributions to the Malaysian music industry. He also received the Recording Industry Person of the Year 1997 award from the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia.

Since launching AirAsia, he has received numerous state awards as well as accolades from international press and industry observers. Within Malaysia, he has been awarded the title Dato’ by the Sultans of Negeri Sembilan and Pahang; Dato’ Seri by the Sultan of Perak; and the title Tan Sri, one of the country’s highest honours, from a former Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Business Innovation from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in March 2010.

Internationally, his outstanding contributions to the French aviation industry were recognised with the title Officier of the Legion d’ Honneur in April 2010, followed by the Commander of the Legion d’Honneur in November 2013, the highest rank of honour that the French Government can bestow on non-French citizens. In 2011, he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

From the industry, he was presented the Airline Business Strategy Award 2005 and Low Cost Leadership Award by Airline Business and named Asia Pacific Aviation Executive by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) for the years 2004 and 2005. He bagged The Brand Laureate Brand Personality Award for his exemplary performance, dedication and contribution to the aviation industry in Malaysia in 2006 and 2007. He was presented the CAPA Legend Award 2009 (Aviation Hall of Fame) for his influence in shaping the aviation industry’s evolution and the Airline CEO of the Year Award for 2009 from Jane’s Transport Finance for his success in leading and growing AirAsia into Asia’s largest and the world’s best low-cost airline.

In 2010, Tan Sri Tony was awarded the prestigious Nikkei Asia Prize in Tokyo for his contributions to the growth of Asia and the Masterclass Global CEO of the Year award at the 2nd Malaysia Business Leadership Award (MBLA). He was also named Forbes Asia Businessman of the Year 2010, the first Malaysian and Asean citizen to receive the award.

In 2011, Tan Sri Tony was named one of the most creative people in business by New York-based business magazine Fast Company and was on its Top 10 Most Creative People in Twitter list. He was also named CEO of the Year at the Annual Budgies World Low Cost Airline Awards held in London; and CNBC Travel Business Leader of 2011 at CNBC’s Travel Business Leaders Award Asia Pacific held in Singapore.

In 2012, he was bestowed the Individual Achievement of the Year award at the 1st Malaysia Achievement Awards 2012, organised by the Malaysia Achievement Organisation (MACA). He was also honoured with the Best CEO for IR - Mid Cap award by the Malaysian Investor Relations Association Berhad (MIRA); named as one of Malaysia’s outstanding CEOs by The Edge Billion Ringgit Club (BRC); and announced as GQ India’s International Businessman of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2012 in Mumbai.

In January 2013, Tan Sri Tony was named a Malaysia Brand Ambassador by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He went on to win Corporate Governance Asia’s Best CEO for Malaysia award - for the third year in a row – in March.

He is a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director of both Tune Ins Holdings Berhad and AirAsia X Berhad.

Stan Gale is Chairman and CEO of Gale International. The Gale family legacy of real estate entrepreneurship dates back to 1922, with the establishment of the Daniel Gale Agency, founded by Stan Gale’s grandfather. In 1985, Stan Gale founded Gale International to focus on international development projects. The company is globally recognized as the foremost expert in smart, sustainable city-scale development. Gale International is headquartered in New York, with offices in California and South Korea. Mr. Gale spearheads the company’s strategic direction, long-term planning, joint ventures and financial partnerships. Mr. Gale serves on the board of the Park Avenue Foundation and The Korea Society, and is actively involved as an Executive Committee member of the U.S.-Korea Business Council.

Karl Gheysen was born in Belgium, 1970. He graduated from HIEPSO in Kortrijk, and later continued his education through different management courses at both Strayer University, as well as INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

He is a Senior Manager for over 15 years. Areas of expertise include container terminals, port management and logistic projects management.

He started his career in Ahlers, Antwerp – an international logistics and maritime service provider – with having managed major markets of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

From 2004 to 2007 – Regional Manager Bas Congo, SDV – Congo D.R.C. (Bolloré Africa Logistics).

From 2008 to 2014 – General Manager, TEMA Container Terminal Ghana Ltd.

Since August 2014, he holds the position of Chief Executive Officer at “KTZE – Khorgos Gateway LLP”. This is the Dry Port and Economic Zone project, located on the border of Kazakhstan and China, along the New Silk Road.

Neal is the co-founder of Shareable, an award-winning nonprofit that publishes the world's leading online magazine about sharing and co-convenes the Sharing Cities Network. He is a social entrepreneur, speaker, and author focused on the sharing economy, sharing cities, and the future of work. He is the co-editor of the sharing-themed books “Share or Die" and “Policies for Shareable Cities.” As a founder of the sharing cities movement, he advises city governments and thousands of grassroots sharing activists from around the world. As an avid sharer, he blogged a year of sharing experiments in an influential series, “The Year of Living Shareably." To learn more, connect with Neal and Shareable on Twitter (@Gorenflo and @Shareable) or join Shareable’s e-mail newsletter here.

A former Sunday Times staff journalist, Chris covered architecture and planning, as well as leading the paper’s London coverage. He launched Spacehive in 2012 as a social business to stimulate new sources of funding and creativity for the civic environment. Since then the platform has helped to deliver a diverse mix of projects across the UK - from a new community centre in Wales to a giant waterslide in the middle of a Bristol high street. He has won awards for Spacehive from the Big Venture Challenge, Nesta, UnLtd, Deloitte and Downing Street.

Spacehive, the world’s first civic crowdfunding platform, aims to democratize the way we shape towns and cities by allowing anyone to create and fund civic projects online. It works by providing tools that help people develop their ideas, get noticed by crowds of people, companies, councils, and the media, and attract funding to make great projects happen. Since its 2012 launch, Spacehive has helped fund 158 projects across the UK worth over £4.8m. Successes include public wi-fi in Mansfield, an urban farm in London, a motorway flyover re-imagined as a “sky park” in Liverpool, and a giant waterslide on Bristol’s high street.

Chris was part of the 2016 Global Urban Innovators cohort.

Rahul leads PwC’s Smart Infrastructure practice and has over 27 years of experience on transformation and change management of complex systems. He has advised government and commercial clients at the highest level on increasing organizational performance and effectiveness.

Rahul has actively engaged in the telecommunications and critical infrastructure protection discipline since 1994. He also leads efforts across the globe helping clients with smart city strategies; integrating technologies to benefit users and service providers; and making cities resilient, sustainable, and with a high livability experience. Rahul has also lead engagements integrating security, smart building technologies, and smart energy operations.

Prior to joining PwC, Rahul served in the US government, working with the DCI, the House Appropriations Committee, the Independent Commission on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the House and Senate Joint Intelligence Committee. He is the recipient of several DCI, GAO, and Commission awards—including a GAO Meritorious Service citation

Engineer Musa Hadid is the Mayor of Ramallah since 2012, following his win in the Local Authorities' Elections that took place in Autumn 2012.

Musa Hadid has been a practicing engineer for twenty years, during which he has had a diverse and broad work experience in Palestine, and has developed his skills to become the general manager of his own two firms. Moreover, he is a successful businessman who has left a lasting mark in his local community, which earned him board membership and chairmanship of several renowned Palestinian organizations. He is currently a board member of The Palestine Red Crescent Society, and the Chairman of the board of both the Environment Diplomacy Center and the Jerusalem Water Undertaking. Mr. Hadid is also the President of the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA) and a member of the Presidential Committee for Churches.

He was elected as Mayor of Ramallah city in October 2012, when his electoral list, Abna' Al Balad (the Sons and Daughters of the City), won the majority of the seats in the most recent local council elections. He was voted in as the mayor, and now heads 3 of the most crucial committees; the Planning and Development, the Projects, and the Education Tax committees.

His journey, which led him to this key position, started in his undergraduate university years. As a Birzeit University student, he was able to develop his leadership skills through his political activism. Musa knew that playing a role in the Palestinian national struggle entailed both responsibility and duty, which he needed to fulfill as a citizen. His educational journey was as important as his journey towards liberation. He became an active member of the student movement, and by the start of the 1987 Palestinian Intifada, he had worked his way up towards the national leadership of the political struggle.

Mr. Musa Hadid is now:

- Head of the Palestinian Union of Local Authorities

- Member of the Higher Presidential Committee of Churches Affairs in Palestine

- Member of the Municipal Development and Lending Fund

- Vice chairman of the Administrative Board of Independence Park

- Member of the Administrative Board of the martyr Yasser Arafat Museum

- Member of the Administrative Board of the poet Mahmud Darwish Museum

- Member of the special committee for the study of homeland organization into developmental regions

- Member of a presidential committee for civil peace

Mr. Han became CEO of POSCO Engineering and Construction in 2016. Before that, he led Daewoo Inter'l Machinery and Infrastructure business unit as Chief Operating Officer. In prior positions, he headed the Power Energy Infrastructure Division, Machinery and Plant Division, and Electronics Industry and Special Business Division. Previous management roles included positions in Bangladesh and Nigeria.

Mr. Han started his career at Daewoo International and later received further training at General Dynamics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

Paula Hancocks is an award-winning international correspondent for CNN International. Based in Seoul, South Korea, she is responsible for covering major stories on the Korean peninsula and the surrounding region.

Hancocks has covered some of the biggest stories in Asia in recent years, including North Korea's latest nuclear test and the global fallout, the AirAsia plane crash in Indonesia and the sinking of the Sewol ferry in South Korea, winning a New York Festival award.

Reporting on the devastating Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Hancocks was aboard the first plane to land in Tacloban, one of the worst hit areas, and was the first international journalist to report live from the ground. Her reports on the human suffering and individual bravery showed the scale of the disaster to the world, while questioning President Benigno Aquino about his government's response. The team won the Royal Television Society award for Best International News Coverage.

Prior to taking up her position in Seoul, Hancocks was based in Jerusalem. Previously, she served as an international correspondent at CNN's London bureau.

Hancocks joined CNN in 1997 as a production assistant. Prior to joining CNN she studied for a postgraduate degree in broadcast journalism at the University of Wales, Cardiff. She also graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Italian from the University of Durham.

Caspar Herzberg leads Schneider Electric’s Middle East and Africa operation with 10,000+ employees, 18 manufacturing & distribution units and offices in 70 countries throughout the Middle East & Africa region. Prior to joining Schneider Electric Caspar Herzberg served as an executive at Cisco and Accenture in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He is the author of ‘Smart Cities, Digital Nations’ published in 2017 and a global thought leader on Smart Cities, Internet of Things and Public-Private Partnerships. He received a Master of Science in International Politics from SOAS, University of London and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford. A German national who grew up in Egypt, Herzberg served as an officer in the German Army and speaks fluent Arabic, German, English and French.

Hiroo Ichikawa, PhD is currently Dean at the Professional Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. He is also an Executive Director at Mori Memorial Foundation. He majors urban policy, urban and regional planning and emergency management. He has been appointed as chairmen and committee members of Japanese national and local governments such as Urban Planning Council. He is a member of steering committee and a chairman of working committee for the Global Power City Index (GPCI). GPCI carried out by the Mori Memorial Foundation is exclusively a sole world ranking issued in Japan.

Ichikawa graduated from Waseda University with a Bachelor of Architecture and later earned a Master of Urban Planning degree at Waseda University. He continued his study at University of Waterloo in Canada where he was granted a Ph.D. from this institution in Urban and Regional Planning.

He is an author of Future Urban Strategy for Tokyo (2012), Lessons from Japanese Disaster (2011), Creating Japan’s Future (2010), Global Front Tokyo: Achieving its world leading status (2007), Urban Space as Culture (2007), Encyclopedia of Metropolitan Tokyo (2002), The Conflicting Futures of the Tokyo Metropolitan Region (2001), Future of Tokyo as Matured Society (1998), Objecting the Relocation of Capital Function (1999), Tokyo’s Future reformed by Relocation of Capital and Decentralization (1995), A City of Attractive Diversity and Flexible Form (1994), and Future of World Cities and their Development of Infrastructure – New York, London and Paris (1992).

Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez is the Senior Director for the World Bank Group’s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice.

In this position, Mr. Ijjasz-Vasquez leads a team of over 600 technical experts deployed across the world, leveraging global knowledge and collaborating with partners to help tackle the world’s most complex development challenges in: social inclusion and sustainability; mainstreaming resilience in all dimensions development; territorial and rural development; and urban planning, services and institutions.

Before this, he was Director for Sustainable Development of the Latin America and Caribbean Region since November 2011, covering infrastructure, environment and climate change, social development, agriculture and rural development, disaster risk management, and urban development with an active portfolio of about $17 billion.

From 2007 to 2011, he was based in Beijing, where he managed the Sustainable Development Unit for China and Mongolia. Earlier in his career, he managed the global trust-funded programs ESMAP and WSP in energy and water and sanitation, respectively.

Mr. Ijjasz has a Ph.D. and a M.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in civil and environmental engineering, with specialization in hydrology and water resources. He has been a lecturer at the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Johns Hopkins University, and at Tsinghua University. He is a Colombian and Hungarian national.

Parag Khanna is a leading global strategist, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also the Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a boutique geostrategic advisory firm, and Co-Founder & CEO of Factotum, a leading content branding agency.

Parag's latest book is Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to more than 100 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Jimmy Kim is Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures. He is also a Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs, a startup accelerator in Korea. Jimmy is Co-founder and President of N3N, an IoT platform company and Cisco’s first global IoT investment. They service numerous Fortune 500 companies and governments, such as Samsung Electronics, POSCO, Port of Singapore, The North Face, and Hyundai Motors. He previously served as N3N’s CEO.

Previously, Jimmy was CEO of Nexonova, a game development studio of Nexon Corp that specializes in Social Network Games. Prior to Nexonova, Jimmy served as Executive Vice President of Nexon Corp, and Head of Nexon’s Portal (www.nexon.com, market cap: $5 billion) and Web Services. Nexon is one of the most successful online gaming providers, with games such as Maple Story, Dungeon and Fighter, Combat Arms, and Kart Rider. Nexon services over 20 games across 60 countries to an audience of 300 million.

Jimmy was the founding investor and active deal adviser of Studio Ex, an online gaming studio that was acquired by Disney in 2012. Jimmy is sought-after speaker on online gaming and technology and has spoken at various conference such as LeWeb, Ad:Tech, and Web 2.0 Expo.

Jimmy received his B.S. in Bio-medical Engineering from Northwestern University, and also a M.S. in Bio-medical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Jimmy also completed the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business’s Executive Management Program.

Derrick is the co-founder and CEO of Spin. He was most recently a Product Manager on the Growth team at Lyft. Prior to that, he was the first employee at a Y Combinator and True Ventures backed startup (acquired by Lyft), a Team Lead at Pivotal Labs, and started a company right after graduating from Purdue University with a degree in computer engineering.

@Spin_pm

Leveraging the Internet of Things and smart water meters, CityTaps partners with local utility companies to guarantee water access to households, including the urban poor, allowing users to use mobile money to pre-pay for water and secure access directly in their home.

Grégoire Landel is a Franco-American social entrepreneur and the founder of CityTaps. He is a feminist & a humanist. He studied engineering in the USA at Princeton, MIT, & Columbia University and worked in software in San Francisco and Kampala before moving to Paris in 2005, where he became an expert in the water/finance nexus in developing countries. This is how he developed his vision for CityTaps which he launched in 2015. Grégoire is married and the father of 3 children.

@CityTaps

Alt-A seeks to make spaces shared by human and vehicle traffic safer and smarter. Using 3D mapping, real-time data collection, and intelligent sensor technologies, their alert system increases safety for pedestrians and vehicles alike.

Lee Young-Geun is the Commissioner of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZ). IFEZ was established in August 2003, with a designated area of 132.9km2, incorporating Songdo, Yeongjong, and Cheongna cities, as well as Incheon International Airport/Ports. IFEZ acts as the hub for government’s strategy of making Northeast Asia’s central economic district.

Before serving as Commissioner for IFEZ, Lee Young-Geun was Head of the Building Research Center for the Architectural Institute of Korea; Professor at State University of New York in Korea, Seoul National University and Korea Aerospace University. He was also Executive Vice President and Acting President of Incheon International Airport Corporation. Lee Young-Geun has held a number of positions in the Ministry of Construction & Transport and the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

He holds a BA, MA and PhD in Architecture from Seoul National University, and was a HumphreyFellow for Urban Planning at Rutgers University New Jersey.

Elisabeth Le Masson has been nominated "Delegate for Economic promotion and jobs creation" of Groupe ADP since January 2016.
Previously she was Delegate for Sustainable development for Paris - Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Le Bourget airports from 2007 to 2015. In her 30+ years of working with Aéroports de Paris, she held numerous managerial positions from finance, to duty-free, to communication, to real estate and to operations. She was Chief of staff of the CEO from 2006 to 2007.
She is Founding Member and Member of the Board of Hubstart Paris Region, the Alliance in charge of the economic development and international promotion of the Paris-CDG Airport Area. She is also Founding Member and Member of the Board of GIP Emploi Roissy, the alliance in charge of jobs creation and social inclusion in the Paris-CDG Airport Area.
She has two diplomas from two prestigious French universities, HEC - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC International Business School) and IEP-Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Paris Institute of Political
Studies).
She was awarded with the French Legion d'Honneur. She is a French Foreign Trade Advisor.

An international figure in architecture and urban design, the architect Daniel Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory in buildings of equilibrium-defying contemporaneity. Informed by a deep commitment to music, philosophy, and literature, Mr. Libeskind aims to create architecture that is resonant, original, and sustainable. Born in Lód’z, Poland, in 1946, Mr. Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager and, with his family, settled in the Bronx. After studying music in New York and Israel on an American-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, he developed into a musical virtuoso, before eventually leaving music to study architecture. He received his professional degree in architecture from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1970 and a postgraduate degree in the history and theory of architecture from the School of Comparative Studies at Essex University in England in 1972.

As Principal Design Architect for Studio Libeskind (SDL), Mr. Libeskind speaks widely on the art of architecture in universities and professional summits. His architecture and ideas have been the subject of many articles and exhibitions, influencing the field of architecture and the development of cities and culture. Mr. Libeskind lives in New York with his wife and business partner, Nina Libeskind.

Preston Mendenhall is the Head of Corporate Affairs for Rendeavour, Africa’s largest urban land developer with over 12,000 hectares of satellite city developments in the growth trajectories of major cities in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rendeavour’s vision goes beyond alleviating what is a self-evident problem – that of stifling urban congestion and a dearth of quality housing and commercial property in Africa. Rather, Rendeavour aims to help create the infrastructure – the living and working spaces, communities, schools and hospitals – that will help sustain and accelerate Africa’s economic growth, meet the aspirations of Africa’s burgeoning middle classes, and serve as a catalyst for further urban development.

Prior to Rendeavour, Mendenhall worked for six years as Vice President for Strategy and Director of Communications at Russian Standard Corporation, one of the world’s largest vodka producers and a leading private consumer bank in Russia.

From 1993-2006, Mendenhall worked for NBC News as a producer and correspondent, covering global news events during this period.

Moon Hoon was born in 1968, in Sangdong Gangwon_do, lived his teenage years in Tasmania, Australia. He was educated in architecture in Korea, and US at MIT, also had work experience in both countries. He has been running his studio Moon_Bal_Sso since 2001. He is interested in breaking the boundaries of architecture by experimenting_crashing, fusing, mixing, and so forth_ with various other disciplines.

He is open minded about boundaries of architecture. His major works include Rock It Suda, Two Moon, S_Mahal, Wind House, and Sangsang Museum which was awarded KIA prize for year 2005. His drawings have been acquired by Museum of Modern Art in NY and Tchoban Foundation in Berlin. He also makes short films related to his architecture with the desire to expand the expressive potential of Architecture.

Michel Mossessian is a world-class architect delivering acclaimed projects in London and internationally. Consistently at the forefront of new approaches, Michel believes in design that creates engaging spaces to work, live and play.

Born in Paris, Michel studied Architecture at the Ecole National des Beaux Arts, where he was honoured with the Villa Medici Hors les Murs prize, before choosing to continue crafting his approach at Cooper Union in New York and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA. He was later appointed Associate Director and Senior Designer at the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). Michel went on to lead design for the SOM London office on a number of complex high-profile projects, notably including the winning design for the new NATO headquarters.

London became key in Michel’s passion for architecture, design and the arts, and so it was here, realising the global attraction for the new architecture and design centre of the world, that he chose to establish his own practice in 2005. His expert team encompasses a wide variety of nationalities, an invaluable advantage in the practice’s diverse international projects, yet is recogniszed as a constant force.

Staying true to his vision of creating culturally responsive architecture, Michel has sought out like-minded organisations, such as UNESCO and the MCC, to work on the world heritage site of Fez Medina in Morocco. He has also successfully completed landmark buildings in London and Shanghai, as well as 26 buildings across the four stages of Doha’s iconic Msheireb regeneration scheme.

Leading every aspect of the design process, Michel is dedicated to working directly with his clients and engaging them in a collaborative approach in order to achieve the best results. His pioneering attitude sees him at the helm of new approaches and technologies. Michel’s original Black Box method is now a staple of every project the practice delivers and ensures a shared vision from the outset.

Michel is deeply interested in cultural localism and architecture that is concerned with far more than the buildings themselves. He considers great design to be as much about where space and light begin, as where walls and boundaries end. Michel’s ability to view public space as a presence rather than an absence enables the practice to deliver successful community areas through their unique sculpting the void approach.

Outside of the practice, Michel’s love of design remains a key aspect in his life and he lectures widely at schools of architecture and cultural institutions. He also personally organises events to promote innovation and development in the industry.

Lena currently acts as the Chief Investment Officer for Amata Corporation Public Company Ltd and oversees strategic investments, mergers & acquisitions and Smart Cities development. She is also the Director of Amata Global Pte Ltd in Singapore and Board Member of STUMPF Amata Solar Co. Ltd. Lena was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in March 2014 and nominated as a Global Agenda Council Member of World
Economic Forum.

Prior to her current appointments, she was also the Chairperson (Audit Committee) and Board Member of the Singapore National Paralympic Council. Ms Ng was a former Singapore Diplomat (Commercial Attaché) based in Thailand and Director (ICT)/Green Programme Office of IE Singapore, an agency under Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry. With more than 20 years of public policy and international investment, Lena’s expertise has been tapped for developing key Nation-wide masterplan and G-to-G collaboration platforms. These include Singapore-Thailand Enhanced Economic Relationship (STEER), Singapore-Tianjin Eco-city FDI Promotion, Singapore-Guangzhou Knowledge City FDI Promotion, Singapore-WorldBank Infrastructure Collaboration, APEC E-Commerce Taskforce and Singapore Logistics Masterplan.

Lena is an experienced speaker and judge with past participation in many international forums such as World Economic Forum, World Bank Conference, Asia Development Bank Infrastructure Forum, Asia Industrial Estates Forum, Mobile World Congress (Barcelona). Lena started her career with leading international firms such as Standard Chartered Bank, British Telecoms Services (Asia Pacific) and Creative Labs (United States/Asia).

Lena holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honors) from National University of Singapore. She has also completed her
Executive MBA, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Harvard Global Leadership programme. Lena speaks fluent English, Mandarin, Thai and basic Korean.

Alana’s academic background spans Podiatric Medicine, Applied Science (Exercise and Sports Science) and Public Health.  Prior to joining WHO in July 2006, Alana  held a number of clinical, technical and managerial positions working on health, disability, rehabilitation and development in West and Central Africa, Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and the Western Pacific.

From 2007 to 2014, Alana was the Coordinator for the Disability and Rehabilitation Team where she lead the development of such landmark resources as the WHO global disability action plan 2014–2021: Better health for all people with disability (2014), the World report on disability (2011) and the Guidelines on community-based rehabilitation (2010) amongst many others.

Alana joined the Department of Ageing and Life course in July 2014 to lead the development of the World Report on Ageing and Health, which was published in October 2015. She currently overseas the Organizations work on age-friendly environments including the Global Network on Age-friendly Cities and Communities as well as the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism.

Dayo Olopade is the author of The Bright Continent, a book on innovation, technology and opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. As a partnerships manager at Facebook, she led business strategy and innovation practice around digital media and international growth, including Mark Zuckerberg's first trip to the African continent. A graduate of Yale College, Yale Law School, and Yale School of Management, she lives in New York.

Fleur Pellerin was born in 1973 in Seoul. In 1974, a French family adopted her and she spent her childhood in the Paris region.
Having graduated from ESSEC (Higher School of Economics and Business Sciences), the Paris Institute of Political Studies and lastly ENA (National School of Administration), she joined the French Court of Auditors in 2000.
On 16 May 2012, Fleur was appointed to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s government as Minister of SMEs, Innovation and the Digital Economy. During this time, in addition to launching the French Tech movement and taking steps benefiting entrepreneurs, she strove to make digital a key focus for the government and the country through various measures such as including the school digital code in the school curriculum, converting government agencies to digital, the «France ultra high speed broadband» program to roll out fibre optics and bridge the digital divide in remote regions etc.
On 9 April 2014, she became Secretary of State for foreign trade, promoting tourism and French people abroad, in the government led by Prime Minister Manuel Valls. On 26 August 2014 she was appointed Minister of Culture and Communication, where she focused her cultural work on entrepreneurship and digital, including global and European copyright and intellectual property safeguards. In March 2015, for example, she launched an internet anti-piracy program to starve illegal streaming websites of advertising income by having advertising firms, authors and artists representatives and online payment firms sign a charter.
She strives to enhance France’s attraction in the film, TV and radio market by increasing tax credits for French and foreign features and animated films, and for the music industry. She has raised video games tax credits in a very competitive international market so as to attract talent and funding, with a view to safeguarding France’s status as a video games pioneer.
Lastly, she was the driving force behind the Laffont/Tirole Research Chair at the Toulouse School of Economics in order to study how economic models evolve in a digital world tackling issues including fair income for authors/artists, copyright compliance and new broadcasting models for cultural goods. As such, for the first time ever academic economic research contributed to culture.
Fleur resigned as government minister on 11 February 2016. By decree dated 25 July 2016, President François Hollande accepted her resignation as a civil servant and she went on to found Korelya Capital.
Fleur speaks English, German, Japanese (intermediate level) and is learning Korean.

With a background as an architect, city planner, urban designer, real estate developer, community development strategist, publisher, and instigator, Eve has a rich understanding of how cities and urban neighborhoods work - and how they can be revitalized.

Amongst her many urban (ad)ventures, Eve has developed a dozen buildings in blighted neighborhoods, launched a Pittsburgh-focused e-zine called Pop City, and founded and organized a speaker series, cityLIVE!, on city-centric issues. She has taught urban design and participated in Sustainable Design Assessment Teams for the American Institute of Architects in cities from Los Angeles to Springfield, Ohio, helping with urban design and to set a strategic course for downtowns and housing developments. Eve has strategized about how to encourage residential development of vacant upper floors in downtown Pittsburgh. And with cityLAB, she has instigated bottom-up projects like the "6% Place," the "Garfield Night Market" and a "Tiny House."

Now Eve has launched - and leads - Small Change, a real estate equity crowdfunding portal to help fund transformational real estate projects. Small Change packages offerings for developers to help them build projects that make cities better, and provides investment opportunities for everyone who cares about cities and wants to see positive change.

@OurSmallChange

Author, columnist, speaker, consultant, Francis Pisani analyzes information technology’s social, urban, and geopolitical impacts. He is currently working on smart cities the world over. His articles appear on LeMonde.fr/Citynnovation. He recently published 2 books (Travels in the smart cities, between datapolis and participolis (free download in English and French) and on the Future of innovation Free downloads in French and Spanish). Francis is President of Le Monde-Smart Cities innovation awards jury.

François Pitti has been appointed Group Director, Strategic Marketing at Bouygues Construction in April 2012.

He is leading globally the development of innovative customer offers with a focus on sustainable design and construction, strengthening the Group’s capacity to anticipate changes in its markets.

François Pitti trained as an aerospace engineer, graduating from the French School of Aeronautical Engineering (Sup Aéro, Toulouse) in 1991. He also holds an MBA (San Diego,CA) and an economics degree (University of Toulouse). He began his career in 1994 at General Electric as a product line manager in the Medical Systems division, before being appointed Marketing Director for Asia in the radiology division, based in Tokyo.

He joined Alcatel in 1998, and held several management positions firstly in Tokyo where he has been living for eight years and then in Paris as Director of Key Accounts and Director of Partnerships.

Since 2007, he had been Vice President, Strategic Alliances for the whole Alcatel-Lucent group.

François Pitti has been a National Economic Advisor to the French Government, by decree of the Prime Minister, since 2008. He has published articles on topics related to geo-economics, territory and nation branding, international alliances, as well as a book in 2009 “China, India: toward a Brand strategy”. He has been lecturing on related themes in institutions such as University of Cambridge, London Business School or Ecole Centrale de Paris. François is on the Board of Directors of French business school and “grande école” ISIT.

Spin's mission is to help people move around cities. Their first product reimagines bikeshare - Spin's GPS-equipped smart bikes are unlocked via a mobile app, and can be dropped off at any bike parking spot. By offering a convenient, affordable, and environmentally-friendly mode of transport, Spin aims to reduce congestion and improve last mile transportation in cities.

@Spin_pm

On September 1, 2011, Rémi Quirion, OC, PhD, CQ, FRSC, became Québec’s first chief scientist. As such, he chairs the boards of directors of the three Fonds de recherche du Québec and advises the Minister of Economic, Science and Innovation on research and scientific development issues.

Until his appointment as chief scientist, Rémi Quirion was the vice-dean for science and strategic initiatives in the faculty of medicine at McGill University and senior university advisor on health sciences research. He was the scientific director of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute Research Centre, a full professor in the department of psychiatry at McGill University and the executive director of the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Professor Quirion was the first scientific director of the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), one of Canada’s 13 health research institutes.

His work helped to elucidate the roles of the cholinergic system in Alzheimer’s disease, of neuropeptide Y in depression and memory and of the calcitonin gene–related peptide (CGRP) in pain and opiate tolerance. Rémi Quirion earned his PhD in pharmacology from Université de Sherbrooke in 1980 and carried out his postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States in 1983. He has over 650 publications in prominent scientific journals and is one of the most extensively cited neuroscientists in the world. He has received several awards and honours, including the Ordre national du Québec (Chevalier du Québec, CQ) in 2003, the Prix Wilder-Penfield (Prix du Québec) in 2004 and the Order of Canada (OC) in 2007. Mr. Quirion is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2015, he was appointed Officer in the Order of Academic Palms of the French Republic , a distinction awarded by the French government that recognizes its contribution to the development of French-Québec relations in research.

Mizah Rahman is a designer and community organizer who is a strong advocate for a participatory and community-centric approach in the design and planning of cities and neighbourhoods.

She is the Co-founder and Director of Participate in Design (P!D), a non-profit design organisation that helps neighbourhoods and public institutions design community-owned spaces and solutions. She is also currently an Associate Lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Design and Environment, and was previously a researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities.

Since the thesis for her Masters of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, Mizah’s portfolio of participatory-based works has expanded to include neighbourhood planning, public space design, and community art installations; working in partnership with grassroots organisations, educational institutions, civic groups and government agencies. Her standing in the participatory design field has seen her being invited to present at various local and international platforms including the Asian Pacific Urban Youth Assembly organized by UN-Habitat, TedXBondUniversity and World Architecture Festival. In 2015, she was a finalist in the Makers of More Challenge by Ashoka Changemakers.

Ashok Raiji is a Principal in Arup’s New York office.  He has led the planning of city-scale developments as well as the design of many high-performance buildings all over the world.  He leads Arup’s Property Business in the Americas.

He has led engineering teams for many high performance buildings and city-scale planning projects in the USA and Asia including Master Plans for New Songdo City and the Yongsan International Business District in Korea, Meixi Lake and Lang Fang in China, a Sustainability Master Plan for the Boston Seaport, and a city-scale planning project in Taif City in Saudi Arabia. He was the lead mechanical engineer for the LEED Platinum rated Kresge Foundation Headquarters in Troy, MI, the 320m tall Northeast Asia Trade Tower in Korea and a convention center and large urban park in New Songdo City in Korea.

Mr. Raiji lectures frequently on Sustainable Design and Urban Planning and has served as Sustainability Technical Advisor to the National Building Museum and the Museum of the City of New York. He has contributed to international journals on the subject of energy and was a contributing author to the National Building Museum’s “Big and Green – Sustainable Architecture for the 21st Century” and “Vertical City: A Solution For Sustainable Living”.  He has served on the International Standards Organization Technical Committee responsible for the development of a Building Environment Design standard.

Ashok has a B. Sc degree in Chemistry from the University of Bombay and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University.  He is a LEED Accredited Professional and a licensed professional engineer in 25 states.  He is also an Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union in New York and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects New York.

Since 2012 Shri Bakshi Ram Arora has been the Mayor of Amritsar Municipal Corporation after winning 75% of votes. Previously, he was a three-time Councillor, first elected in 1997.

He has held many positions within the executive council of the B.J.P. including General Sectary of the Party, Vice President and President for Amritsar City.

In his previous career he was Chairman of the Improvement Trust, Amritsar.

Since an early age, Shri Arora has been active in promoting change across India and active in the student rallies and during ‘The Emergency’ period in 1975. He was arrested and jailed for his peaceful activism ‘Satya Grah’ three times.

Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna is the Director of UNESCAP Office for East and North-east Asia.  Prior to this he was the Principal Policy Advisor to the Executive Director, UNEP and Vice President for Policy at Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC).  He was also Special Advisor to the United Nations in drafting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and also assisted with work on the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and subsequently worked for a while as the Principal Officer for Implementation in the CBD secretariat, Montreal.

Dr. Ramakrishna taught at a number of law schools including at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Harvard Law School, Boston University and Boston College Law Schools and at Yale University. His research interests were largely on how developing countries cope with emerging environmental problems and what role if any that laws, regulations, judiciary and civil society might play in it. He is an elected life member of the US Council on Foreign Relations.

Few things energize Mahesh Ramanujam more than driving consensus, innovative business strategies, and authentic thought-leadership through a challenging and ever-changing sustainability-focused marketplace.

A charismatic public speaker and skilled negotiator with a solutions-focused and people-centric approach to leadership, Mahesh has a clear vision for the continuing evolution of the green building and sustainability movement: True global market transformation for the built environment can be achieved through building healthier, more sustainable communities where buildings perform at a higher level and human health and wellness is prioritized and enhanced.

In his dual roles as president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification, Inc. (GBCI), Mahesh leads and empowers hundreds of employees across the globe and thousands of volunteers across USGBC’s ever expanding community to execute and support the vision of former USGBC and GBCI CEO, Rick Fedrizzi.

A trusted and proven leader, Mahesh brings a true passion for people, the global business case for a sustainable built environment and an entrepreneurial leadership approach to USGBC and GBCI’s rapidly expanding and diversifying teams, as well as a suite of best-in-class products and offerings.

Mahesh has a wide range of expertise including organizational leadership, consensus building and negotiation, global business and market development and optimization, marketing and communications, and technological innovation.

Mahesh graduated from India’s Annamalai University with a degree in Computer Engineering. Before becoming President and CEO, Mahesh served as USGBC’s chief operating officer, and prior to that, served as USGBC’s chief information officer. Prior to joining GBCI in 2009, Mahesh was COO of Emergys Corp., a business technology-consulting firm that leverages emerging technologies to deliver business transformation to its clients. Over a period of 11 years, Mahesh successfully led various business transformation programs at IBM and Lenovo.

Mahesh currently sits on the Advisory Council of the International WELL Building Institute, the creators and developers of the WELL Building Standard,® and the Board of Directors of GRESB, a private, Netherlands-based industry-driven organization, wholly owned by GBCI, that is the leading sustainability standard for global real estate portfolios and infrastructure assets.

Elaine Ramirez is a Seoul-based freelance journalist covering Korean technology, startups and business. Formerly a business reporter and copy editor at The Korea Herald, she writes for Forbes Asia, Bloomberg BNA, Mashable, Quartz, Nikkei Asian Review and others. She also curates Startup Seoul, an English-language news digest on Korea's startup scene. Follow her @elainegija.

Arvind leads business development globally for Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities initiative, driving transformative partnerships with service providers and strategic partners and executing joint ventures, acquisitions and equity investments.

Under his leadership, the team has executed iconic city projects in Barcelona, London, Songdo and various locations across the world. Arvind is responsible for driving innovative partnerships with Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, TDC, Orange to scale the go-to-market of Cisco’s smart city solutions. Arvind has executed joint ventures with U-life solutions and investments with Sensity, Majitek, WorldSensing, Nexpa and others. He serves on advisory boards for fast paced IoT startups, World Sensing and Urbanise.

Arvind is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and holds a bachelors in computer engineering and a masters in finance from the University of New South Wales.

What if your building could be a public health intervention tool?  What if your office space made you healthier just because you spent 8-10 hours a day there?  It was the potential of joining the world’s largest asset class – real estate – with the world’s fastest growing industry – wellness — that led Paul Scialla to found theInternational WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) and develop the WELL Building Standard™ (WELL), the performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of buildings and communities that impact the health and well-being of the people who use these spaces every day.  Today, WELL is in 28 countries and more than 85 million square feet are registered and certified under this evidence-based standard.

Paul knows both worlds well.  He spent 18 years on Wall Street, including 10 at Goldman Sachs as a Partner, where he came to understand the power of purpose-driven capitalism to impact the world’s problems. He’s a founding board member of the JUST Capital Foundation, as well as a board member of the Chopra Foundation.  Paul graduated from New York University with a degree in finance, and he currently resides in New York City. He has become a leading advocate for the idea of human sustainability through better buildings, and has spoken at green building, real estate, and technology forums around the globe.

Yaron is the founder and CEO of Tridom: Robotic Construction. He is a consultant and thought leader for open innovation and accelerating technologies, most notably in the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economy and he was the Bold Innovator and designer of the Future of Housing Roadmap for XPRIZE.org. He is a winner of the Ramon Breakthrough Competition and an accredited high school teacher. Yaron graduated Singularity University's Global Solutions Program in 2014, where he founded Tridom. Yaron looks forward to sharing his experience and enthusiasm about the future of housing and living in urban environments.

Ludwig is the Economist’s technology editor. He joined The Economist as US technology correspondent in 1998. In 2003 he was sent to Berlin as the newspaper’s Germany Correspondent, before relocating to London in 2008 to cover the IT industry until 2011 and then run part of the Economist’s website as online business and finance editor. Mr Siegele started his journalistic career in 1990 as the Paris Business Correspondent of Die Zeit, a Germany weekly. In 1995 he moved from France to California to write about the internet for several German publications. He holds a degree in economics and political science from Cologne University and degrees in journalism from the Kölner Journalistenschule as well as the Centre de Formation des Journalists (CFJ) in Paris. He is also co-author of a book on SAP (“Matrix der Welt – SAP und der neue globale Kapitalismus”). He is the author of The Economist’s special report on startups. He is married and lives in London with his wife and two children.

Samar Singla, Founder and CEO of Jugnoo is a serial entrepreneur. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and a Physicist by education, Samar sold his first company, Prodigy foods and followed it with his second venture Click Labs, a profitable SaaS technology solution provider. Jugnoo, his third venture, aims to be an instant on-demand mate for all the daily needs of its customers and uplift millions of people socially and economically by providing them better income and life quality.

Green City Solutions are the creators of CityTree, combining a vertically installed moss culture with Internet of Things technology to address air pollution in cities. Each CityTree has the environmental equivalent of 275 urban trees, at a fraction of the space and maintenance costs.

Victor studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Dresden with specializations in agricultural systems and company organisation. For the University and other institutions he led several workshops concerning innovation process and urban farming with a special focus on distribution strategies. He was Chief Project Developer at Kverneland – one of the world’s biggest agricultural machinery producers – where he managed the development and market implantation of a new Internet of Things product line. He is responsible for Green City Solution's research and development division.

@mycitytree

Julia Suh is an urban strategist and the founder of Urban Toolbox: a human-centred design consultancy that transforms valuable urban spaces for the common good. She has taught and practiced architecture, placemaking and urban design from New York, Auckland, Hanoi and Sydney, building an extensive knowledge of what creates healthy and happy communities. This year, as a Westpac Social Change Fellow, Julia continues to advocate vulnerable communities’ right to the city through placemaking. Her work in stakeholder engagement, planning policy and urban research has been locally recognised by the Planning Institute of Australia, and internationally by The Guardian. Julia received her M.Arch. from Yale University and B.Arch. from the University of Auckland.

Josué Tanaka is the Managing Director responsible for the operational strategy and planning function of the EBRD and for leading the Bank’s energy efficiency and climate change activities.

Josué Tanaka joined the EBRD at its creation in 1991 to start its municipal and environmental infrastructure financing activity.

In 1993 he was appointed Country Director responsible over time for the Bank’s activities in Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine.

From 1998 to 2007, Mr Tanaka became Corporate Director responsible for strategy, planning and budgeting.

In 2006, he was appointed Corporate Director, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change, leading the EBRD climate change mitigation and adaptation financing activity including the formulation and implementation of the Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI).

Prior to joining the Bank, Josué Tanaka worked at the World Bank where he was Special Assistant to the President.

A national of France and Brazil, Josué Tanaka holds a Master of Science and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Mayor Ninna Thomsen has been Mayor of Health and Care in the City of Copenhagen since January 2010. She has been a member of the City Council since 2006 and the political leader of the Socialist People’s Party in Copenhagen since 2011.

Prevention and public health have been key issues in Ninna Thomsen’s political career – with creating the Smoke Free Cities Alliance, introducing mandatory physical training during work hours for all care workers in Copenhagen, and opening free stress clinics for the citizens of Copenhagen as some of her main achievements.

Ninna Thomsen has a Master of Science in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen.

Ms. Archana Vemulapalli was nominated to serve as the District's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) by Mayor Muriel Bowser on January 12, 2016. She was confirmed by the DC Council on April 5, 2016.

Prior to joining OCTO, Ms. Vemulapalli was Chief Technology Officer for Pristine Environments where she helped business leaders use technology as an enabler. She was responsible for the company’s IT strategy and transforming the company’s technology solutions offering in the market. In this position, she demonstrated technology leadership by developing and executing IT strategies to promote organizational growth and ensuring optimal utilization of emerging technologies. Ms. Vemulapalli also operated a successful technology and strategy consulting practice in Washington DC.

Previously, she spent years as a technology strategy consultant at global consulting firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte Consulting and Lucent Technologies etc.

Ms. Vemulapalli has a master’s degree in Leadership from McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Telecommunications from the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree in Engineering from the University of Madras.

Ms. Vemulapalli is the recipient of Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business 2015 award. Ms. Vemulapalli was selected to participate in Leadership Greater Washington Class of 2015 and Women in Technology’s Leadership Foundry Class of 2014. Ms. Vemulapalli serves on the Trustees Council of Penn Women at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a NACD Board Governance Fellow.

Ms. Vemulapalli resides in the District with her husband and son.

Safetipin is a map-based mobile application that works to make cities safer, with a focus on women’s safety. The app collects and disseminates safety-related information to both users and city decision-makers on a large scale through crowdsourcing and geospatial analysis.

Dr. Kalpana Viswanath is the co-founder and CEO of Safetipin, which is a social enterprise using data and technology to support cities in their endeavour to become safer, more inclusive and smarter.  Since its inception in 2013, Safetipin has worked with more than 30 cities in India and other developing countries.  Safetipin collects public space data through multiple sources including the MySafetipin app, and works with governments, to use this data for better planning and maintenance of cities.

Earlier, Kalpana headed Jagori, a leading NGO working on women’s rights.  She has led large projects globally, and has been a consultant for many agencies including Women in Cities International, Action Aid, Plan International, UN Women, and UN Habitat.  She has published widely in journals, magazines and newspapers, and is frequently called upon as an expert on various TV channels.  She is on the board of several organizations including International Centre for the Prevention of Crime in Canada and Advisory Board of Women in Cities International.

@safetipinDOTcom

Emmanuel is the Chief Executive Officer of RATP Dev Transdev Asia (RDTA) since February 2015 and the Managing Director of the iconic Hong Kong Tramways since May 2012.  From 2009 to 2012 he was based in Seoul, where he was in charge of Strategy, Business Development in ASEAN & Korea for RDTA and was also a Director of the Seoul Metro Line 9 Operation Company. He joined Veolia Transport in 2005 in the Paris headquarters and moved to Beijing in 2007. An Engineer, Emmanuel graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in France. Emmanuel is a French Foreign Trade Advisor, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Instituted of Logistics and Transport (HK) and a Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.

Natalie Voland has been working outside of the traditional real estate box for more than 20 years. With her social work background, she has created a unique vision to use real estate projects as a tool of economic development and urban regeneration. Her accomplishments have included the creation of over 3,000 new jobs. She is passionate about taking single use, historical buildings and retrofitting them for entrepreneurial uses. As a Quebec leader in social innovation through B Corp Certification based on triple bottom line practices, Natalie works collaboratively with strategic partners to redevelop communities. She holds a portfolio of approx. 1.5 million sq.ft with over 500 SMB’s, including start up incubators and advocates for leadership of inclusions.

Her latest creation is retrofitting of one of Montreal’s oldest churches into a hub of social innovation called Salon 1861, which uses business skills and contacts to help integrate residents of Little Burgundy, non profit community groups, Universities, with business leaders to use collective experiences to rebuild Montreal.

James von Klemperer is President and Design Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates where he began as a young architect in 1983. His work ranges in scale from a house to a city, and he contributes closely to these efforts from conception to completion. In addition to focusing on his own projects, he leads the community of designers within the firm in exploring shared architectural agendas and goals. As President of the firm, he is responsible for leading the staff of 550 people in 6 offices around the world.

A major focus of Jamie’s work has been to heighten the role that large buildings play in making urban space. He has explored this theme in major projects in Asia including the China Resources Headquarters in Shenzhen, Plaza 66 and the Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, China Central Place in Beijing, and the 123-story Lotte World Tower in Seoul. In New York, his design for One Vanderbilt will link Midtown's tallest tower directly to Grand Central Terminal. Each of these projects creates strong symbiotic relationships between program space and the public realm. At the larger scale, his design for New Songdo City extends this challenge to the scope of urban planning.

Jamie’s designs have been recognized for the marriage of efficient program with adventurous form. His Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC, Dongbu Financial Center in Seoul, Park Fifth residential project in Los Angeles, and Riverside 66 urban market in Tianjin have all received AIA design awards.

In London, Jamie is leading the design of the Wanda hotel and residential towers in One Nine Elms. He is also active on the continent, in particular in Paris, where he is completing a building for the Ministry of Justice at the Parc du Millénaire and in Lyon where he is designing a series of buildings within the Part Dieu station precinct.

Jamie has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, Tsinghua, Tongji, Seoul National, and Yonsei Universities, the ESA in Paris, AMO in Lyon, and at Yale, where he taught as a Saarinen Visiting Professor. He recently spoke at the fourth Nobel Laureates Symposium on Global Sustainability, hosted in Hong Kong. After graduating from Phillips Academy Andover, he received a BA from Harvard in 1979, Magna Cum Laude in History and Literature. In 1980 he was the Charles Henry Fiske Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge. He received his MArch from Princeton in 1983. Jamie serves on the Board of Directors of the Skyscraper Museum, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, as well as the Forum for Urban Design. Jamie is also a Trustee of Bard College.

Geoffrey West is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics, especially those concerning the elementary particles, their interactions and cosmological implications. West served as SFI President from July 2005 through July 2009. Prior to joining the Santa Fe Institute as a Distinguished Professor in 2003, he was the leader, and founder, of the high energy physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he is one of only approximately ten Senior Fellows.

His long-term fascination in general scaling phenomena evolved into a highly productive collaboration on the origin of universal scaling laws that pervade biology from the molecular genomic scale up through mitochondria and cells to whole organisms and ecosystems. This led to the development of realistic quantitative models for the structural and functional design of organisms based on underlying universal principles. This work, begun at the Institute, has received much attention in both the scientific and popular press, and provides a framework for quantitative understanding of problems ranging from fundamental issues in biology (such as cell size, growth, metabolic rate, DNA nucleotide substitution rates, and the structure and dynamics of ecosystems) to questions at the forefront of medical research (such as aging, sleep, and cancer). Among his current interests is the extension of these ideas to understand quantitatively the structure and dynamics of social organizations, such as cities and corporations, including the relationships between economies of scale, growth, innovation and wealth creation and their implications for long-term survivability and sustainability.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was one of their Centenary Speakers in 2003. He has been a lecturer in many popular and distinguished scientist series worldwide, as well as at the World Economic Forum. Among recent honors he was a co-receiver of the Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America, the Weldon Memorial Prize (2005), Oxford University and the Glenn Award for research on Aging. In 2006 he was named one of Time magazine's"100 Most Influential People in the World" and his work selected as one of the breakthrough ideas of 2007 by the Harvard Business Review. He is the author of several books, a visiting Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School at Oxford University.

West received his BA from Cambridge University in 1961 and his doctorate from Stanford University in 1966, where he returned in 1970 to become a member of the faculty. West is married to Jacqueline West, a psychologist in private practice; they have two children: Joshua, a geologist at Oxford University and an Olympic silver-medalist, and Devorah, a political scientist at the Brookings Institute.

BSc in Civil Engineering from Kandahar University, MSc in Good Governance and Public Policy at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Roshaan Wolusmal is following his Executive PhD at the Poleticnico Di Milano in Italy.  His research is focusing on Role of Large Construction Projects on the Economic Growth of Afghanistan. He is Visiting Lecturer at Kandahar University.

Beside his position as the Mayor of Kandahar, he is institutional member of ISOCARP, ARCOM and ICLEI. Retrurning expert & Consultant of CIM-GIZ, Germany in Afghanistan. Senior member of the board for the formulation of Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). Member of Supreme Council for Urban Development, led by the Office of the President of Afghanistan.

Elected in 2014, Jeong-bok Yoo is Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City. Yoo has been involved in public office for many years. He began his career in 1994 when he was elected the Mayor of Gimpo County, of Gyeonggi Province, in 1994 and became the youngest mayor in Korea. The following year, he then was elected the Mayor of Seo-gu, Incheon. From 1998 to 2002, he served two terms as the Mayor of Gimpo City. Yoo served as the Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries from 2010 and the Minister of Security and Public Administration from 2013.

The Mayor holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yeonsei University, an M.A. in Public Administration from Seoul National University and is on course for a Ph.D. in Political science from Yeonsei University. In addition, he was awarded the Globalized Partner Award by the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea in 2010.

Philippe Yvin was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Société du Grand Paris, the public-owned company in charge of the Greater Paris new transport network, on February 19th during the Council of Ministers. Until then, he was advisor at the cabinet of the Prime Minister for local administrative entities. He is also territorial administrator, former General Director of local administrative services of Seine Saint Denis and Oise.

Philippe Yvin was born in 1957. He graduated from ESSEC Business Scholl and Sciences Po Paris. He started his career as an officer at the regional council of the Parisian region (Ile-de-France) from 1981 to 1983. He was then General Secretary of Epinay-sur-Seine (1983-1985) as well as officer at the mayoral commission for security.

Head of cabinet of Epinay-sur-Seine city hall (1985-1989), he became General Secretary of the Cities National Council (1989-1990). He was then appointed director for delinquency prevention at the interministerial delegation for city and socio-urban development (1990-1991).

Sub-prefect from 1991 to 1993, he became General Secretary of the Prefecture of Haute Corse (1993-1995) and after that head of cabinet of the Essonne’s Prefect (1995-1997) before being nominated head of the civil cabinet of the Defense Ministry (1997-1998). He became from 1998 to 2002 head of cabinet of the City Ministry. In 2003, he became General Secretary of the commission in charge of the elaboration of the environmental Charter before managing, from 2004 to 2008 the departmental services of Oise and Seine Saint-Denis (2008-2012).

As an Associate Director-Technical Development at GBCI, Hina works primarily on LEED for cities and LEED for Communities in order to mainstream cities and urban settlements of all scales towards livability, efficiency, sustainability and inclusiveness. She also supports project teams engaged in WELL rating, LEED v4 Homes, LEED v4 BD+C and other GBCI programmes in the Asia Pacific region. She is also actively involved in the education programs for professionals on LEED v4 in the region.

Qualified as an architect and urban and rural planner, she has built her career in a variety of roles. Her specific interests lie in trying to find implementable solutions and business models on issues pertaining to growing urbanization. She has worked on several projects related to climate resilience, social/affordable housing, low impact development, water and waste management issues apart from several green building projects. Some of her recent work pertains to navigating the realms of low-carbon growth at sub-national and national level (for construction sector).

In her over 15 years of experience, she has had the opportunity to work at both macro and micro scales, from policy making to actual implementation and monitoring of the strategies/impacts to achieve contextual resource efficiency. She has the experience of working on both national and international projects, often requiring cross-disciplinary understanding. She also enjoys writing papers for referred journals and books and has a flair for quantitative analysis to see the impacts of policy changes in mid-long term at different scales. She has developed curriculum/courses and interaction/training for practitioners and students. She has worked on several cross-cutting areas and programs which looked at GHG inventory preparation, mitigation action plans, water and waste management, green infrastructure, energy supply and demand side management, financial promotional programs to promote energy efficient homes, guidelines for human settlements, integration of resource efficiency in national building codes, policy interventions, institutional implementation structures and actual implementation of projects. She has authored and contributed to several books and publications in the domain of Sustainable built environment and has more than 25 papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She is widely travelled and has lectured in several national and international seminars and conferences.

She is member of the Guidelines Development Group for Healthy Housing, WHO , member of the multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee, 10YFP Programme on Sustainable Buildings & Construction, editorial board member of Renewable and Sustainable Energy: An International Journal (RSEJ) and is a registered reviewer with several Elsevier publications.

Prior to joining GBCI, Hina worked as Associate Director with the Sustainable Habitat Division at TERI and Adjunct Faculty at TERI University.

Alix Zwane is a social entrepreneur and public health expert. She joins the team from Evidence Action where she served as Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors. Evidence Action builds business models to bridge the gap between what research has shown to be effective and what is implemented in practice. Alix grew the organization to one employing over 200 people and helping over 100 million children annually. Prior to Evidence Action Alix was Senior Program Officer in the Global Development group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, taking a lead role on strategy development for the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene team and setting the team’s evaluation policy and associated investment plan. Her stint in philanthropy was preceded by experience in both the private sector and academia. Alix holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and has published widely in environmental and development economics journals.