GATE IO COUNTRIES OF SERVICE
Amaravati - 2019

She leads the Institute for Excellence in Government, a non-profit consulting firm dedicated to improving government performance. She has served as an appointed official in government and as a financial advisor and consultant to government. Her current consulting, research, and writing focus on government innovation and data-driven decision-making. She is leading an effort to create a national network of urban Chief Data Officers to accelerate the use of analytics in local government. She has advised the US cities funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies in their Mayors Challenge competition. She has written on customer-centric government, data-driven decision-making in government, pretrial justice, and 311 for a variety of audiences.

Her prior consulting work has included organizational strategy, performance management and eGovernment strategy work for Accenture and Price Waterhouse. Selected clients include the National Governor’s Association, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Criminal Justice Association, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States Postal Service, the State of Michigan, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the United States Department of Commerce.

Ms. Wiseman has served as Assistant Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and as Assistant to the Director for Strategic Planning, National Institute of Justice, United States Department of Justice. Ms. Wiseman represented the Justice Department on detail as a Staff Assistant for the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. Ms. Wiseman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Smith College and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

As a legendary optimist and a person of action and reflection, with civicLab Anja Wyden Guelpa helps companies or organizations to become more competitive and attractive through the evolution of their corporate culture. She successfully motivates teams in difficult times; by using collective intelligence she comes up with creative solutions and in a very short time use them to map out new paths and optimal solutions. Her experience and a certain natural authority allows her to lead and steer creative processes and help executives and employees to excel. She analyzes situations and complex contexts very quickly. She explains them in simple words, synthesizes with ease and debates them with pleasure and conviction.

The sharp thinking and efficient bundle of energy Anja Wyden Guelpa was elected in 2009 the first woman State Chancellor of the Canton of Geneva. After two successful and dynamic terms she decided in 2018 to leave politics and to turn to the private sector by creating her consulting company and think or do tank civicLab. Beside her company she is an independent board member of corporate boards, chairwoman of several foundations and she teaches Innovation, Design Thinking and Political Communication at the Universities of Lausanne, Geneva and the University of Applied Science Geneva.

Very flexible and passionate about innovation, design thinking and co-creation, change is for her the natural state of things. She debates with pleasure, relevance and real conviction. As a legendary optimist and always smiling, she successfully motivates teams in difficult situations, by using collective intelligence she comes up with creative solutions and in a very short time uses them to map out new paths and optimal solutions. Her experience of more than 20 years and a certain natural authority allow her to lead and steer creative processes and help executives and employees to excel. Anja Wyden Guelpa analyzes situations and complex contexts very quickly. She can explain them in simple words and synthesizes with ease.

Before moving to the political arena, the woman of action Anja Wyden Guelpa worked at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), was a strategy and change management consultant at IBM Business Consulting and general director of social affairs in the Canton of Geneva, where she was responsible for 400 employees and managed a budget of 1.5 billion dollars.

Anja Wyden Guelpa studied political science in Geneva and Tübingen and after completing her masters she obtained a master in public management. She is perfectly bilingual in French and German (as well as Swiss German). She speaks perfect English and understands Italian perfectly and can communicate effectively. Contemporary art, travelling and yoga give the hyperactive Upper Valaisian, who lives in Geneva, the necessary balance and grounding.

Phillip Norrie Fraser was born in Trinidad and Tobago where he lived until completion of his Ordinary and Advanced Level courses from Cambridge University. In 2018, he was appointed director of one of the most important municipalities in the state of Tamaulipas (Ciudad Madero) having the responsibility for the development and execution of those projects in Madero related to reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases, remedying the damage to water and soil due to years of neglect and the proliferation of unplanned landfills.

Mr. Loh Ah Tuan has over three decades of professional experience. He joined the Singapore Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources about 35 years ago, retiring in 2007. Mr. Loh served as the Director-General for Environmental Protection and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Environment Agency (NEA), and held portfolios in environmental planning, environmental pollution control, integrated solid waste management and environmental public health.

As an expert for Centre for Liveable Cities, his focus is on providing urban leaders and practitioners with the knowledge and support needed to make our cities better.

Dr. (Mrs.) Rashmi Singh is posted as Secretary of New Delhi Municipal Council since April, 2018. Prior to this, she was posted as Secretary (Gen. Admin./ Industry/Social Welfare and Admin. Reforms) in the Andaman Administration and as Executive Director, National Mission for Empowerment of Women at the Ministry of WCD amongst other portfolios handled by her. She was the founder Director of Mission Convergence programme and Samajik Suvidha Sangam laying the foundations, structures and processes which define this unique programme that received notable international acclaims (Such as CAPAM Award, UN Public Service Award) for civic engagement and public service delivery.

An impassioned architect, urbanist, and entrepreneur, Michael has founded and led high-growth companies in the US and Asia for more than two decades. He studied architecture at Yale and Cambridge, and earned a Fulbright Scholarship. Michael has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and in several major business, government, and AEC publications worldwide. He has also received several awards for his work, including Building Design and Construction’s “40 Under 40” award.

D Ramakrishna did his M.TECH (Electrical engg.) in IIT MADRAS, and is the founding CEO of Efftronics Systems Pvt. Ltd., established in 1985. He is the architect of one of India’s largest IoT network built for Indian railways with more than 6 million things connected across 9000 locations. For Efftronics’ outstanding work in IoT, it was recognised with CIO Choice 2017 award which is democratically chosen by more than 400 CIOs and CTOs from Indian Industry.

M Anand is a Green Building Professional, at the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad, India. He is a Principal Counsellor and a team member of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) of CII. He is a Indian Green Building Council Accredited Green Building Professional. He is a member working on the green building rating system for India, IGBC Green Homes, Factory Buildings, Core & Shell programmes. He is also closely associated the World Green Building Council (World GBC) activities.

Ms. Stefania Costanza started her mission as Consul General of Italy in Mumbai last 13 of October 2017. Until September 2017, Ms. Costanza was the Head of the Consular Protection Division in the Consular Affairs and Migration Policies Department of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Before this, she was Deputy Head of the UN Division at the Political Affairs and Security Department of the Ministry and also served as Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Italy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Prior to joining the Govt of Andhra Pradesh, Patro co-founded 3 ventures in digital/e-commerce space and mentored 5+ startup founders. Alongside entrepreneurship, he spearheaded consulting projects in setting up and scaling up of e-commerce businesses for medium-large size retailers in fashion and sport goods. Besides these, Winny Patro is a passionate coach. He mentors many students intechnology, management and entrepreneurship-related areas. He is also a Guest faculty on E-commerce & Modern Online Branding/ Marketing at Institutes like IIM-Indore (Mumbai Campus), IIIT Gwalior, GSIB, etc.

Mr. Ramakrishna Rao is the Advisor of Amaravati Planning Design Research Institute, a specialized wing under APCRDA set up for driving innovation and research in the field of well-being and happiness in Amaravati. Previously, Mr. Rao was the Director of Planning Division at Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA). During this term, he was responsible for the overall Master Planning of Amaravati and the design of the iconic buildings in the Government complex. The local by-laws and Zonal Regulations for Amaravati has been framed under his guidance. With vast knowledge & experience in the Urban Planning, he has been an expert advisor in shaping the greenfield city.

Guy is an architect, urban designer, and developer with global experience in creating economically viable, environmentally sustainable, human-centered environments. He applies this expertise to McKinsey’s work on some of the Middle East’s largest and most complex multidisciplinary projects. For over 30 years, Guy has spearheaded development and design in a wide range of urban settings around the globe, receiving accolades from the International Academy of Health and Design, ISOCARP, the SOM Foundation, and the Urban Land Institute.

Dr.Sreedhar Cherukuri, is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, currently working as Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority and Capital Area. As head of the organization, he leads a team of over 300 for the development of the greenfield capital city and its adjacent region, across physical, social and economic development.

Prior to this position, he was the Joint Collector of Guntur District where he was instrumental in the implementation of the widely acclaimed “Land Pooling Scheme”, in mobilising and convincing about 27,000 farmer families to part their land for the construction of Amaravati. Prior to his involvement in Amaravati, he worked in senior management positions in the state’s Infrastructure investment arm, working extensively on realizing SEZ and large area development projects on PPP mode.

Dr. Sreedhar Cherukuri graduated with 2 gold medals from College of Veterinary Science, Tirupati and has also obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Management form Hyderabad Central University.

Bruno Moser is a partner and head of the practice’s Urban Design Group, which focuses on all aspects of urban design and planning. He graduated from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich in 2000 and gained a masters in city design and social science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2003. After completing his MSc he continued research at the LSE. Projects include the international conference series ‘Urban Age’ and ‘The Endless City’, research for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, ‘City and Society’ and the subsequent exhibition at the Tate Modern. He joined Foster + Partners in 2007.

His team consists of specialists from a range of backgrounds – including design, real estate, sociology and computation. By gaining a detailed understanding of context, the group helps to develop projects that are tailored to specific socio-economic, climatic and spatial circumstances. As project goals are defined, the Urban Design Group works with the project teams to focus on issues such as spatial structure and hierarchy, the distribution of land uses and density of urban form, building typologies and passive urban design.

His project experience includes initiatives for new cities, such as Blue City in Oman and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi; urban developments in Beijing and Riyadh; a regional development plan in the Middle East; and a study of infrastructure development in the UK. He has worked on regeneration-driven schemes in Singapore, West Kowloon and Shanghai, and schemes with a residential focus in Lisbon, Toronto, Latin America and the Middle East. He is also involved in architectural projects with a focus on people interaction and movement, such as the New York Public Library.

Professional areas of expertise: Environment, Urban Management including reforms, social inclusiveness, environmental conflicts and regulatory compliance. 23 years of professional experience across government, multilateral agencies, corporate sector, consultancy.

As Director (Strategy) at APCRDA was responsible for a few of the challenging and multi faceted assignments including obtaining green nod from apex agencies, successfully addressing legal challenge, GoI Smart City Challenge, Fund Mobilization through Bonds etc.

Gender, Livelihoods, Resettlement, social development, project structuring, information centers, consultations, IP issues are among the key focus areas of Sastry as part of ASCCDP.

Mr. Rama Manohara Rao, a 1998 batch Civil Servant, GOI, has 20 years of vast experience in infrastructure finance& accounting, PPP, policy and administration. In the current leadership role in APCRDA, he is focusing on greenfield city Amaravati development strategy, Financing the project, investment promotion, PPPs, multilateral agencies like World Bank, AIIB, JICA and global partnerships with Singapore, Japan, UK etc.

Concluded the PPP project for development of 6.84 Sq Km of startup area in Amaravati with Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp forming a JV with GOAP. Raised Rs 2000 Cr (USD 275 Million) from capital markets through a oversubscribed Amaravati Bond 2018.

Earlier, he held key positions in Indian Railways both at operational and policy levels. As the Director (Finance)-Ministry of Railways, GOI, he shaped investment plans and Union Railway Budget for six years of the order of $8-$9 Billion USD capex yearly. Served as Director on Boards in various Public Sector Enterprises, Government of India & GOAP.

Attended various leadership and training programs in United States (Maxwell School of Public Policy), Japan (JICA), London (ESCP) and Cambodia ( US Department of Transportation on PPPs)

Received National Award, GOI, for meritorious service as a Civil Servant in 2007. Represented Government in various delegations to UK, France, US, Japan,China, Singapore, Brazil & Abudhabi

Mr. Rao holds a PGPPM – PG Program in Public Policy and Management from IIM Bangalore, and Maxwell School USA with focus on Project Finance. He also holds a Masters in Physics. Currently pursuing his PhD in Infrastructure finance.

Francesca De Ferrari is a Programme Management Officer in the New York Liason Office of UN-HABITAT and focal of gender for the Americas. She has been working in the Development and Humanitarian world for almost 2 decade. She is Civil Engineer as background, with Masters in Hydrology and Hydrogeology and International Development. She started her career in Colombia managing a recovery programme after a devastating earthquake. She worked with international NGOs, with OXFAM as Public Health Officer in Philippines in emergency response after typhoon and land slide. She worked with UNICEF as Chief of Water and Sanitation Department in El Salvador, as a Water and Sanitation and Emergency Specialist in Sudan and as Education and Water and Sanitation Specialist in Sierra Leone. She joined UN-HABITAT in May 2010 bringing with her broad field experience. In her career she always promoted very innovative tools to create greater impact in the implementation of the projects. She always integrated gender in the programs she has been managing , from introducing Menstrual Hygiene in schools in Sierra Leone with UNICEF, to support gender policies in UN-Habitat, no matter the topics she will add gender component in it! She is now responsible of building partnerships and ensures coordination among UN agencies and other stakeholders in the topics of humanitarian and urban development in UN-HABITAT New York Office.

Dr. Gopichand Katragadda is the Founder and CEO of Myelin Foundry, an AI company with a vision to transform human experiences and outcomes in healthcare and media & entertainment. He is also an Independent Director of Bosch India Limited.

Till January 2019, Gopi was the Group Chief Technology Officer and Innovation Head of Tata Sons. At Tata Sons, he facilitated the development of pioneering products and services, strategic technology collaboration, and innovation across the $100 Billion Tata Group. Previously, as the Chairman and Managing Director of GE India Technology Centre, he helped grow GE’s largest R&D Centre – the John F. Welch Technology Centre, to be amongst the world's leaders in intellectual property generation.

Gopi is the Chairman of the CII National Technology Committee and the CII Western Region Innovation Taskforce. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. He is a GE Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Gopi helped establish the Advanced Materials CoE at IIT-Madras and the Advanced Manufacturing CoE at IIT-Kharagpur. He has framed the CII-Tata Communications Digital Transformation CoE. Gopi also set up and managed the ongoing Tata research collaborations with Harvard and Yale. He has authored a book on innovation titled “SMASH,” currently in its second edition.

Hazem Galal is a PwC Partner and the global Leader for PwC’s Cities and Local Government Sector. With 25 years of consulting experience, Hazem has expertise in strategy formulation and implementation for cities and local government entities. He supported several city projects in the United States, Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe, which gives him an edge of expertise in both developed and developing countries conditions. Hazem worked with cities around the world such as New York, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Astana, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Moscow and Sochi. He’s currently the co-chair for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development group that is contributing to the ISO standard for cities and smart infrastructure.

Since 2007, Hazem has been leading and contributing to PwC’s global Thought Leadership for cities and local government including the latest report “iUrban: Innovative City Strategies for Sustainable Competitiveness”, “Investor Ready Cities” and “It’s how you play the game” (on hosting mega events). Hazem is a frequent speaker at numerous global conferences and panels on cities organized by the World Cities Summit, World Bank, Sports Accord, World Islamic Economic Forum, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations and other international bodies as well as local and national governments in developed and developing countries, including the BRICS and a frequent expert on leading media channels such as the BBC, CNBC, Russia Today and Channel News Asia.

Mr Montgomery creates transformative experiments, conversations and stories about cities, science and human well-being. Charles has advised students, policy makers and planners from across USA, Canada and England. Montgomery is known for leveraging his insights from happiness science to drive experiments that have helped citizens from across the world to transform their relationship with each other and with the city. While working with the Guggenheim Lab, psychologist Collin Ellard and the citizens of the New York City, he used mobile phone applications to map the emotions of the public space in the Lower East Side. At the museum of Vancouver and elsewhere, Montgomery and his collaborators create participatory programs that help citizens treat their cities as hands-on laboratories.

Montgomery has won multiple awards for his writing on urban planning, psychology, culture and history in magazines and journals on three continents. His first book, ‘The Last Heathen’ (published internationally as ‘The Shark God’) won the 2005 Charles taylor Prize for literary non-fiction and the Hubert Evans prize for non-fiction and was shortlisted for two two Writers’ Trust of Canada awards. Among his numerous awards is a Citation of Merit from the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society for outstanding contribution towards public understanding of climate change science.

He is the first elected mayor for Thimphu, and has embarked on various urban planning projects. Prior to this, Mayor Dorjee was formerly the General Manager of the Bhutan Power Corporation. As Mayor, Mayor Dorjee has planned to outline development initiatives; in February 2013, he endorsed a Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) Strategy to improve urban sanitation and hygiene for Thimphu City. Dorjee is also the co-chair of the Subnational Integration Working Group (SNI WG).

An international leader with a wealth of cities experience and who is driving the global smart cities agenda through positions within the EC Smart Cities and Communities Innovation Partnership (EIP). He is a forum member for the UK Ministerial Smart Cities Forum Member, Moderator for the ‘6 Nations’ Smart Cities Forum, City Protocol Society, chair of the ISO Smart City Strategic Advisory Group; and an active member of the BSI Smart Cities Advisory Group (steering board of Planning Guide; Smart Cities Overview). And brings considerable international city-specific experience.

With previous executive roles with Capgemini and Shell, Graham is well-networked and a recognised thought leader on issues of public services futures, city governance, customer-centric service transformation, urban mobility, technology enablement and the like. He is an active shaper of new smart city and eGovernment thinking, and a regular speaker and chair of conferences and workshops.

He has 20 years of professional work experience in various aspects of urban development in India. He studied Architectural Design from School of Planning & Architecture (SPA), New Delhi and Architectural History & Theory from the University of Cincinnati and Columbia University, USA. He has served as the Director of Sushant School of Architecture, Gurgaon and has taught at the School of Planning & Architecture (SPA) from 1998 till 2006. From 2007 to 2010, he was the Chief Executive of Urban Space Consultants, providing consultancy in policy formulation, spatial planning, heritage conservation, transportation and livelihoods development, for clients such as Infrastructure Development Finance Company, Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transport System, Jaipur Virasat Foundation, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, India Foundation for the Arts and others.

He has a comprehensive list of publications to his name. He is the author of 'Contemporary Indian Architecture', 2008; co-author of 'Building Beyond Borders', 1995, and co-editor of 'Round', a collection of seminal Asian texts on architecture. He is also a founding member of the Modern Asian Architecture Network (MAAN).

Prior to that, Dr. Aisha worked as Assistant Director General of the Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. Part of her role was leading the Smart Dubai task force team from the time of the announcement of the Smart Dubai initiative in March 2014, to the formation of the Smart Dubai Office. With more than 20 years of experience in information, communication and technology (ICT) development in public and government sectors, she possesses analytical, coordination, communication and advocacy skills relating to ICT, public reform trends and strategies. Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr represents the Smart Dubai Initiative in many communities and conferences such as City Protocol Society, smart Cities Expo as well as at the GSMA.

Piero has 10 years of experience in climate change policies and urban resilience planning. Currently he is the Milan Chief Resilience Officer and the City Lead for the H2020 Lighthouse project Sharing Cities at the Municipality of Milan. He is an advisor of the Italian Ministry of Environment Land and Sea on Urban Adaptation Policy to Climate Change.

In recent years was the Co-Founder of Climalia, specialised consulting company providing climate services in Italy, where he operates as Resilience Specialist. Piero was an Acclimatise Associate.

Piero is a member of the European Commission Mayors Adapt Practitioners Work Group and Member of FiRe 2016 Implementation Working Group at Climate Policy Initiative. He is member of the Advisory Board of the EU FP7 Ramses Project that aims to structure a cost\benefit analysis methodology for Urban Adaptation Plans.

He has extensive expertise in projects financed by the European Commission, including the LIFE+ project BlueAP Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (Senior Expert), LIFE+ RECOIL Recovered waste cooking oil for combined heat and power production (Technical Director), MED Green partnerships as Senior Expert and MED ZeroCO2 Small communities for big changing.

He further specialised in Urban Resilience, Environmental Economic Accounting, Energy Scenario and Climate Change Impact Models through his working experience at the Stockholm Environment Institute – Tallinn Office. In past years he collaborated with EU MP, Umberto Guidoni.

He writes for different specialised magazines and web-portals on climate change issues.

Professor Tony Wong is Chief Executive Officer of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, an Australian Government $120million inter-disciplinary research centre with research hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Singapore. He is internationally recognised for his research and practice in the sustainable urban water management, particularly in Water Sensitive Urban Design. Professor Wong was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2012. He was presented by the Institution of Engineers, Australia with the prestigious Sir John Holland Award as Australia’s 2010 Civil Engineer of the Year. In presenting the award Chair of the Engineers Australia Civil College Board Matthew O'Hearn described Professor Wong as, 'a visionary, who throughout his career, has been an effective thought leader who continues to encourage his colleagues and clients through his passion and dedication to building sustainable environments'. In 2018, Professor Wong received the IWA Global Water Award for his work and global impact in water sensitive urban design. Professor Wong’s expertise has been gained through national and international consulting, research, and academia and he has led a large number of award-winning urban design projects in Australia and overseas and has been commended for having defined "a new paradigm for design of urban environments that blends creativity with technical and scientific rigour”.

Professor Wong has over 30 years experience in the fields of water resources management in both the rural and urban environment, with a focus on Ecologically Sustainable Development, particularly integrated urban water cycle management and Water Sensitive Urban Design. He has over 150 publications, notably Australian Runoff Quality: A Guide to Water Sensitive Urban Design, and have presented over 40 keynote and invited lectures. Professor Wong provides strategic advice to state and local governments, and the land development industry, on sustainable urban water management and has led the development of many state and corporate policies on Water Sensitive Urban Design. He was a member of the Urban Water Advisory Panel of the National Water Commission of Australia and served on the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council’s working group on Water for Cities in 2006 and 2007. From 2006 to 2012 he was commissioned to provide strategic advice to the Public Utilities Board of Singapore on institutionalising water sensitive urban design in the Singapore. Professor Wong has been involved in water engineering research since commencing his PhD candidature directed at improving methods for flood prediction. His research in the field of water sensitive urban design including gross pollutant traps, constructed wetland technologies and bioretention systems for improving urban stormwater quality now forms the basis of contemporary industry standards, for advancing water sensitive design practices. The outcomes and insights from his research contributions are increasingly being adopted by industry as standard designs in numerous development and redevelopment projects across Australia, and have led to state and national water management guidelines for advancing the contemporary practice of Water Sensitive Urban Design.

Michael is an experienced master planner and urban designer leading the team for Singapore's Marina Bay master plan and Central Area as Director at the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Former CEO of the National Heritage Board and concurrent founding CEO of the National Gallery Singapore. Responsible for overseeing the administration of the statutory board, design and renovations of museum extensions and the design conception and planning of the National Gallery Singapore.

He is a former board member of Land Transport Authority, Civil Service College and the Singapore Tourism Board. He is a current board member of National Library Board and Chairman of the Public Libraries Advisory Committee.

Satish earned a BE(Hon.) Degree from BITS, Pilani in 1983 and followed it up with a MBA from Symbiosis International University, Pune in the year 2007. He has over 33 years of diverse professional experience in sectors like Cement, Chemicals, Electronics manufacturing, IT services, Consulting and in IT products companies before coming to Infrastructure and Real Estate. Currently he is the President (Operations), Sri City. Sri City is a 7500 Acre integrated business city project. Before joining Sri City he was heading the City Management of Lavasa Hill City in Maharashtra. He is considered an expert in City management, governance and operations and on subjects like Smart Cities. He represented his company on FICCI as well as CII committees on Smart Cities initiative.

He has been a speaker in many conferences in India and seminars across the world. Most recently he spoke on the subject of Affordable City development in the City-Quest 2015 conference in KAEC, Saudi Arabia and on Development of Smart City Initiatives in World Free Zones (WFZ) conclave 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand and Township Development Summit, June 2016 in Mumbai. He also serves on core committees of New City Foundation, USA on new city development and also serves on board of many industry bodies in India.

Co-Founder of Thebe Investment Management, he is also the owner of the US$1.5 billion Nkwashi town development in Zambia. Also Co-Founder of Frontier Capital Partners, an Africa focused private investment firm backed by leading US and African real estate investors. Seed investor and Co-Founder of Class Guru, a London based technology firm developing Class Guru; a free universal social learning management platform; as well as other cloud based enterprise products still in development. Member of Forbes Africa’s 2018 Under 30 List.

As part of his tenure with GE Capital, Parag cycled out to an industry operating role for two-years at Genpact, India's largest business process outsourcing company and an operating subsidiary of GE. Parag has been an institutional venture investor in India for most of his 18 year career. He has invested in 27 companies across India, resulting in 14 exits including three IPOs to date, most notably Geometric Software, Powertel Boca, vEngines, Vertex India, and TV Today.

Parag's venture career began with ICICI Ventures in Bangalore in 1993, near the beginning of India's economic liberalization and emergence of its venture industry. At ICICI, Parag was part of the core team investing in India's fast emerging technology, media & telecom sectors. In 2000, Parag moved to Delhi to join GE Equity where he continued his early-stage venture investing focus. Before joining the Inventus team in the spring of 2008, Parag had been an Associate Director at Intel Capital's India venture team in Bangalore. At Inventus, Parag is a Board Director at redBus, Savaari, Vizury, Funds India and eTechies.

Parag is a Charter Member of TiE Bangalore and has an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore and a BSME from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.

Liz Zeidler, Chief Executive of the Happy City Initiative is an international facilitator with 20 years experience in designing and delivering transformative learning experiences. She is passionate about social and environmental justice and supporting the change in mindsets that can really bring both about. She believes in the idea that the world is not about endless communication and GDP growth. She believes in developing local alternative measures to GDP and campaigning for a fairer economy.

Cathy Hillman has over 10 years experience in the built environment. Her cross training ranges from design, space planning, detailing, ethnography, urban research and documentation to field assessment and construction in disaster recovery. She has designed, managed, planned and/or permitted a multitude of program types from single-family residences and sound studios to civic spaces including transportation and library work. Cathy’s diverse and transnational experiences enables her a facility for problem solving through a variety of scenarios (client intentions, agency requirements and approvals, and other project dynamics). Consistent throughout her work is a drive towards effecting coalitions that forward creative, restorative and viable solutions through a progressive spirit of inclusion.

Cathy’s work is a blending of architecture and ethnography. She has traveled extensively to research, photograph and document land, building, space and forms, for and of women. Her research endeavors to gain a comprehensive relational and visual survey of women’s spaces in the built environment. Her work draws attention to the impact women have in particular while it simultaneously locates women as a critical group in the imagination and actuality of the built environment universally.

Specialties: Mindful, Restorative and Sustainable Land Building and Space Design, Planning, Detailing, Documentation, Business Development and Development in crisis environments, Architectural Drawings as Mapping Devices, Ethnographic Studies/interviews, PAR (Participatory Action Research), EBD (Evidence Based Design), Interface Between Participants, Inhabited Spaces, Place and Circumstance, Political and Social Conditions, Economic Conditions and Constraints, Space and Interaction. Resource management

Olivia is the Deputy Executive Director of NewCities as well as the Director of Research and Events. In this role she has dual-responsibilities; directing the research ventures, including fellowships and pilot projects of the Foundation, as well as the design and management of the thought-leadership events and workshops that discuss and disseminate best practices in urban development. A member of the NCF team since 2012, Olivia has led the program and content development for the annual New Cities Summit, Cities on the Move, Cityquest Forum, Greenfield Cities Alliance and Innovations in Financing Urban Infrastructure.

Originally from Connecticut, Olivia holds a BA from the University of Warwick (UK) and an MSc from the University College London.

Karabi Acharya, has drawn upon her expertise in anthropology, public health and systems thinking in working with the citizen sector in the United States, South Asia, and Africa, joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2015. She directs the Foundation’s strategies for global learning as it identifies best practices in other countries, including poorer or less-developed ones, and adapting them to improve the social determinants of health in communities in the United States.

Previously, Acharya was global director for Ashoka, a network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with nearly 3,000 fellows in 70 countries putting their system-changing ideas into practice on a global scale. She led Ashoka’s efforts to document the impacts of its work and convene critical conversations that will shape our future. In this role she led the design of the 2015 and 2013 Ashoka Future Forum, which brought together more than 300 social entrepreneurs, business leaders, philanthropists and journalists to discuss and celebrate thought-provoking solutions.

Prior to Ashoka, Acharya served as a senior program officer with the Academy for Educational Development where she developed the SCALETM approach, a whole-system approach that builds social capital by strengthening organizational networks. SCALETM has been used in agriculture, tourism, and health sectors in more than nine countries. It has improved livelihoods for more than 100,000 Kenyan dairy farmers and ended a private sector boycott in Morocco, putting women’s cooperatives back to work. Also, during this period, Acharya was on faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Acharya earned a BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, a Masters of Health Science in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctor of Science from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is also a Donella Meadows Leadership Fellow. She has written and presented extensively on a host of issues, such as sustainability, nutrition, health disparities, child health, infectious diseases, immunizations and many other areas of national and global health.

Dr Sumantran is Chairman of Celeris Technologies and an advisor to several leading Fortune-100 organizations in autos, industrial equipment, defence and aerospace. He is the author of the book, Faster, Smarter, Greener: The Future of the Car and Urban Mobility, (www.fastersmartergreener.com) published by the MIT Press in 2017.

He is a MISI Adjunct Professor at MIT (USA) and a Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and. He is currently writing a book on the future of the global auto Industry with MIT. Previously (2006-2014) he was Executive Vice-Chairman of Hinduja Automotive, UK, the auto and manufacturing sector holding company of the Hinduja Group as well as Vice Chairman of Ashok Leyland. For their joint-ventures, he was the Chairman of Ashok Leyland Nissan Ltd, and Chairman of Ashok Leyland John Deere Ltd.

Prior to this (2001-2005), he was the chief executive officer of TATA Motors’ Car business, reporting to Mr. Ratan Tata. During this time, he led that fledgling business to become India's 2nd largest car maker, and oversaw the concept development for their landmark projects including the Tata Nano and the Tata Ace.

Prior to joining TATAs, Dr. Sumantran had a 16-year career with General Motors in Detroit and subsequently served on deputation in Europe as Director, SAAB Automobile AB.

Dr. Sumantran has served on the Science Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India and the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Indian Government. He was a member of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and served as Chairman, National Defence Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry until 2013.

Dr. Sumantran holds MS and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering (Princeton University & Virginia Tech) and a Master’s degree in Management of Technology. He is a Fellow of SAE International and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers.

Dr. Geeta Mehta is an adjunct professor of architecture and urban design at Columbia University and the founder/president of Asia Initiatives (AI) (www.asiainitiatives.org) a non-profit organization with a mission to help communities help themselves. Geeta is the innovator of Social Capital Credits (SoCCs), a community currency for social good that is being used in USA, India, Ghana, Kenya to incentivize communities to improve their neighborhoods and wellbeing. She was recognized as one of the 21 Leaders of the 21st Century by Women’s eNews in 2015, and by HSBC Bank as the Social Entrepreneur of the year in 2017. She also serves on New York Mayor De Blasio’s Advisory Board for Waterfront Development.

Geeta is also the co-founder of “URBZ: User Generated Cities” (www.urbz.net), that works with underserved communities to help improve neighborhoods through advocacy and better public spaces and homes.

Geeta is a board member for The Center for Living Cities, and Women Strong International. She also serves on the advisory boards of Friends of University of Tokyo, and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) Dean's Community Advisory Board. She is a frequent speaker at international forums related to urban design and social justice, and is also the author/co-author of six books.

More about her work is at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeta_Mehta

http://asiainitiatives.org/

https://www.arch.columbia.edu/faculty/52-geeta-mehta

Since 2012, Jorge has been fully dedicated to Smart Cities and Communities (special focus on communities and Smart Citizens). In this arena, he acts as an evangelist for humanizing Cities, focus on social cities and people's happiness.

Beyond just storytelling (near hundred presentations in all 5 continents), he believes in story doing. Hece, they have created EngageCitizen (first citizenry social network fully integrated to eGov system), lead project Smart.London, co-chair of EU EIP Smart Cities and Communities (citizen focus) and VP of DigitalTown (US public listed Smart Cities tech company) just to highlight a few. Along with his professional activity, he has also combined it with a creativist activity - he has started Hackers and Founders Portugal community and led the DishMob community.

He is a Board Member (sales manager) for Portuguese subsidiary of IFS, General Manager of Exact, founder of Optential (IT consultancy), InteracTVty (interactive Television), CodeAngel, TST and Engage Citizen.

Liang Thow Ming is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Port City, Colombo a 269 hectares brand new city right next to Colombo, Sri Lanka. This is a USD 1.4 billion investment project by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). When completed, Port City Colombo will provide some 5.6 million square meters of build-up area and aims to function as a hub to South Asia with plans to incorporate an International Financial Center, Luxury Residences, Retail Destination, Marina, International School, Medical Facilities, Convention & Exhibition Center, Theme Park and other various Lifestyle Concepts. Development timeframe is expected to be 25 years with an eventual total investment estimated at USD 15 million.

In his capacity as the CSMO, Liang is responsible for the commercial success of the project. In addition to the sales and marketing function, Liang took charge of the crisis management public relations function and is also a key member of the product development team.

Liang has spent more than 20 years in sales and marketing of real estate portfolios, both with developers and the consultants. Over this period, Liang has been involved in every aspect of the real estate development cycle, starting from land evaluation, development concepts, product development, advertising, public relations, sales and customer development and relations. His experience has brought him through major public listed developers across Asia and with top real estate international consultants.

Liang holds a BSc with a major in Mathematics and a MBA (Real Estate) from the National University of Singapore.

Simon has 25 years of working experience in the property industry. He had worked at several senior positions for several established companies in China. He was previously the Regional Director and GM of Henderson Land Group and Surbana Corporation in China. He has strong expertise and experience in full cycle of development from planning and design till completion and handover.

Simon holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Tsinghua University and a MBA from the National University of Singapore and the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Certified International Project Manager from the American Academy of Project Management.

Mahmoud Hesham El Burai is currently serving as Managing Director of the Dubai Real Estate Institute. In addition to his government position in Dubai, Mahmoud has been the Vice President of the International Real Estate Federation, FIABCI UK, since January 2011 and sits on the Board of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO), the International Real Estate Society (IRES) and the Middle East North Africa Real Estate Society (MENARES). Mahmoud has served as the FIABCI representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for West Asia (UNESCWA) since January 2012. Recently, Mahmoud was selected to be the only member from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region on the United Nations Global Compact/RICS steering committee mandated to apply Global Compact Principles to the real estate industry.

Prior to his Managing Director role with the Dubai Real Estate Institute, Mahmoud worked for three years as the Senior Director of Real Estate Sector Development at the Real Estate Regulatory Authority of Dubai and also worked as a Development Associate Manager at Dubai Holding. Mahmoud completed his Bachelor’s degree in engineering at the American University before continuing on to earn his Master’s degree in Real Estate from the National University of Singapore. Mahmoud completed his MBA in Finance from his alma mater, the American University of Dubai, in 2010. In January 2014, Mahmoud was selected to join the Sheikh Mohamad Bin Rashid Leadership Program, which is designed to train top government decision makers.

Emani Kumar has been the Executive Director of ICLEI South Asia since its founding in 2005. He was also appointed as Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI in the year 2013. With degrees in Environmental Management, Environmental Planning and Civil Engineering, Emani has more than eighteen years of professional experience on issues related to climate change policy and planning, local governance, renewable energy and energy efficiency, social accountability, systems management and auditing.

Previously Mr. Kumar has worked with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and also with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). Apart from overseeing the organisation's strategic development, he also coordinates various multi-year & small scale projects and research work supported by various donor and UN agencies; State and National governments of India and Research Organizations. He also liaises for various projects like Promoting Low emission Urban Development Strategies in Emerging Economy Countries (Urban LEDS), SUNYA- Towards zero waste in South Asia and more.

In his role as ICLEI Deputy Secretary General, Emani Kumar works with all the offices in Asia, to ensure cohesion in implementation of ICLEI’s agendas and spearhead advocacy activities in the region; he also supports the Secretary General in representing ICLEI at all international fora.

Hasna has diverse experience ranging from - field engineer, from production to quality management to logistics management to project management in Morocco and Africa. Her forte lies in negotiations, commercial strategy, and teamwork. She has proven experience across multiple positions. Her interest areas include female leadership, innovation, creativity and managerial courage. She is a staunch believer in the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Amit Prothi is an urban planner, educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and currently Head of India National Strategy at 100ResilientCities (100RC), a program of the Rockefeller Foundation. Amit is also managing the preparation and implementation of Resilience Strategies in several Asian cities including Seoul, Singapore and Chennai that are supported through 100RC. Amit has practiced in North America, Asia and Africa for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, US Government, and numerous municipalities and private sector clients. For nearly 20 years, he has worked on thematic areas including environmental planning, urban policy, urban design, land use planning, natural resource management, flood management, disaster risk reduction, housing, and community development.

His expertise lies in the field of sustainability, the built environment and multi-sector collaboration. He is a chartered quantity surveyor, project manager and an accredited partnership broker. He is equally an accredited professional/assessor in several green building/sustainable communities rating systems.

Tony regularly contributes on regulatory, policy and strategy work locally and internationally for UN-Habitat, World GBC, UNEP, UNECE, ITU, IOC and the Government of Mauritius on energy efficiency, smart cities, circular economy, innovative finance and digital transformation.

He is an expert for the advocacy platform, United for Smart and Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) and for the “digital transformation of cities” working group of UN Habitat. He is senior partner at Ecosis, and hold several positions on boards of international and national not-for-profit multi-sector organisations including the African Blockchain Hub, Africa regional network of World GBC, GBC Mauritius.

Tony has won several awards for his work.