
Global Urban Development
Barcelona, Beijing, Berkeley, Curitiba, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Panama City, Porto Alegre,
Poznan, Prague, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Washington, DC
Board of Directors
(as of June 30, 2023)
Chairman: Marc Weiss, CEO, Global Urban Development, Berkeley, CA, and Washington, DC; Coordinator, Porto Alegre Sustainable Innovation Zone (ZISPOA), Porto Alegre, Brazil
Vice Chair: Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson, Emirates Environmental Group; and UAE Coordinator, Global Urban Development, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Vice Chair: Banning Garrett, Senior Fellow, Global Urban Development; and Senior Fellow, Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, Eugene, Oregon
Vice Chair: Nicky Gavron, Assembly Member, Greater London Authority, London, UK
Vice Chair: Jane Katz, Washington Coordinator, Global Urban Development; and Steering Committee Member, UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign, Washington, DC
President: Robert Zdenek, Interim Executive Director, San Joaquin Valley Housing Collaborative, San Luis Obispo, CA
Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Legal Officer: Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, President, Metropolitan Economic Strategy LLC, Berkeley, CA, and Rehoboth, DE; Deputy Coordinator, Porto Alegre Sustainable Innovation Zone (ZISPOA), Porto Alegre, Brazil
Claudio Acioly, International Housing and Urban Development Consultant, and Visiting Professor, IHS-Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Saeed Al Abbar, CEO, AESG, and former Chairman, Emirates Green Building Council, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Rosa Alegria, Co-Chair, The Millennium Project, Brazil Node, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Jobeda Ali, Chair and CEO, Three Sisters Care, London, UK
Roberto Alvarez, Executive Director, Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, Washington, DC
Jose Barria, Coordinator, Panama City Sustainable Innovation Zone (ACTA), and Director of Sustainability, Pentagrama Design Studio, Panama City, Panama
Nefise Bazoglu, Senior Fellow, Global Urban Development, Istanbul, Turkey
Lucelena Betancur, Director, Foundation Habitat Colombia, Bogota, Colombia
Iman Bibars, Vice President, Ashoka Global, and Regional Director, Ashoka Arab World, Cairo, Egypt
Claire Blanchard, Head, Global Advocacy, WWF International, New York, NY
Cid Blanco Jr., Project Director, Quanta Jaime Lerner Consortia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Lawrence Bloom, Secretary General, Be Earth Foundation, and Chairman, Be Energy, London, UK
Peter Calthorpe, Urban Design & Planning Principal, HDR, Berkeley, CA
Marcus Coester, CEO, Aerom, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Thais Corral, Director, Network for Human Development (REDEH), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Angela Danilevicz, Professor and Chair, Department of Production and Transportation Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Istefani de Paula, Professor, Department of Production and Transportation Engineering, Federal Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, Executive Director, Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, Iowa City, IA
Malika Djebli, Local Coordinator, Poverty Reduction Strategy, Government of Morocco and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Marrakech, Morocco
Fabian Domingues, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, and Coordinator, Center for Studies and Research in Urban Economics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Alain Durand-Lasserve, Senior Research Fellow, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, France
Marlene Fernandes, Senior Fellow, Global Urban Development, and former International Advisor, Brazilian Institute for Municipal Administration (IBAM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Neil Fraser, Principal, Urban Inc., Johannesburg, South Africa
Luigi Fusco Girard, Professor and Director, Department of Conservation of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, University of Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
Emilio Haddad, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Julie Childers Henry, President, The Pulse Team, Sarasota, FL
Elliot Hoffman, CEO, REV, San Francisco, CA
Kenneth Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor in History and the Social Sciences, and Director, Herbert Lehman Center for American History, Columbia University, New York, NY
Bianca Jagger, President, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, London, UK
Paola Jiron, Associate Professor and Director, Institute of Housing, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
C. S. Kiang, Chairman, Sustainable Development Technology Foundation, Beijing, China
Wilfried Kreisel, Global Health and Environment Consultant, St. Genis-Pouilly, France
Vinay Lall, Director General, Society for Development Studies, New Delhi, India
Claudia Laub, President, El Agora, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Vivian Lin, Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Public Health Practice, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Rodrigo Loures, President, Nutrimental, Curitiba, Brazil
Stella Madrid, Intergovernmental and Community Affairs Officer, Denver Housing Authority, Denver, CO
Tony Manwaring, Strategic Partner, Re:Cap, London, UK
Walker Massa, Chief Innovation Officer, UFO Space, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Patricia McCarney, Professor of Political Science and Director, Global Cities Institute and Global City Indicators Facility, University of Toronto, and President & CEO, World Council on City Data (WCCD), Toronto, Canada
Luis Felipe Nascimento, Professor, School of Management, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
James Nixon, Chairman, Sustainable Systems, and Director of Business Development, REV+ALL, Oakland, CA
Henrik Nolmark, Director, Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, Stockholm, Sweden
Tarson Nunez, Political Science Researcher, Department of Economics and Statistics, Secretariat of Planning, Rio Grande do Sul State Government, and Adjunct Professor, Post-Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Mary Jane Ortega, Lecturer, Ateneo School of Government, Metro Manila, Philippines, and Special Advisor, CITYNET, Seoul, South Korea
Janice Perlman, President, Mega-Cities Project, New York, NY
Luiz Carlos Pinto da Silva Filho, Innovation Secretary, Porto Alegre City Government; Professor, School of Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul; Coordinator, Pacto Alegre; Porto Alegre, Brazil
Shelley Poticha, Managing Director, Healthy People and Thriving Communities Program, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC
Elaine Yamashita Rodriguez, Senior Fellow, Global Urban Development, Los Angeles, CA
Rafael Roesler, Vice President of Research and Professor of Pharmacology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Donovan Rypkema, President, Heritage Strategies International, Washington, DC
Nola-Kate Seymoar, Chair, Vancouver City Planning Commission, Vancouver, Canada
Asad Shah, Senior Fellow and Director, Global Think Tank Network, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
Phillip Singerman, Independent Consultant, Bethesda, MD
Miquel Sodupe, former Director, Urban Consortium for Development of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Barcelona, Spain
Ludek Sykora, Vice Dean for Foreign Relations and Geography Section, and Professor of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Kaarin Taipale, Board Member, Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council, Helsinki, Finland
Patrick Wakely, Emeritus Professor of Urban Development, University of London, former Director of the Development Planning Unit, University College London, London, UK
Emiel Wegelin, Director, UrbAct, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Michael Wegener, Partner, Spiekermann and Wegener Urban and Regional Research, and Professor of Spatial Planning, Technical University of Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Carol Willis, Director, Skyscraper Museum, New York, NY
Mark Willis, Senior Policy Fellow, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University, New York, NY
David Wilmoth, President, Learning Cities International, Sydney, Australia
Nicholas You, Executive Director, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, Guangzhou, China
Belinda Yuen, Research Director, Lee Kuan Yew Center for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore