Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada

The UEF2020 virtual conference started with a kind message from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

Dear Friends:
I am pleased to extend my warmest greetings to everyone participating in the Urban Economy Forum 2020. This event brings together community leaders and financial stakeholders to monitor, assess and improve the sustainable development of urban economies. I am certain that all participants will benefit from the sessions and discussions planned for the virtual edition of this year’s event, and will leave inspired to put what they have learned into practice. It has been a challenging year so far. The COVID-19 pandemic has made planning and hosting events like this especially difficult. That is why I would like to thank the dedicated organizers for making this event possible. You can take pride in your efforts to support sustainable development projects. Please accept my best wishes for a productive conference.

Sincerely, 

António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017.

Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, in refugee camps and in war zones, the Secretary-General is determined to make human dignity the core of his work, and to serve as a peace broker, a bridge-builder and a promoter of reform and innovation.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Yemen, led to a huge rise in UNHCR’s activities as the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution rose from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif
Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif (Malaysia) is the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), appointed at the level of Under-Secretary-General by the Secretary-General, following an election by the General Assembly on 22 December 2017. On 22 January 2018, Ms. Sharif assumed her post at UN-Habitat’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ms. Sharif holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Town Planning Studies from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, UK and a Master of Science in Planning Studies from the Malaysia Science University. She has received several awards, including, “Planner of The Year 2014” by the Malaysian Institute of Planners, the 2016 Global Human Settlements Outstanding Contribution Award during Habitat III in Quito, for her contribution in sustainable planning in Seberang Perai and from the Penang State Government. On 11 January 2018, she received an award from the Malaysia Book of Records recognizing her for being the first Asian woman to be appointed as Executive Director of UN-Habitat.

Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canada

The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell is the 29th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. As the representative of Her Majesty The Queen, Ms. Dowdeswell carries out constitutional and ceremonial duties and facilitates healthy citizen and community engagement. She contributed globally as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. In Canada her diverse portfolios ranged from education and culture to environment and the management of complex public enquiries. She was the founding president and CEO of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, and later the president and CEO of the Council of Canadian Academies. She has served on the boards of Canadian and international corporate and non-profit organizations. Since taking office in late 2014, Ms. Dowdeswell has challenged Ontarians to think deeply about their role not just as residents of a province, but as global citizens. Building resilience and sustainability through inclusive economic prosperity, environmental stewardship, and social cohesion, as well as safeguarding democracy, has been the focus of her mandate.

Honourable Ahmed Hussen

Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Government of Canada

The Honourable Ahmed Hussen was first elected in 2015 to represent the riding of York South—Weston.

Minister Hussen immigrated to Canada in 1993 and settled in Toronto. He began his career in public service after high school, working with the Hamilton-Wentworth social services department. Minister Hussen co-founded the Regent Park Community Council in 2002. As its president, he played a key role in securing the $500-million revitalization project for Regent Park while advocating for its 15,000 residents to ensure that their interests were protected. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for his leadership efforts in the Regent Park community. Serving as National President for the Canadian Somali Congress, Minister Hussen worked with national and regional authorities to advocate on important issues to Canadians of Somali heritage, strengthening civic engagement and integration. His results-driven reputation led to an invitation from the Toronto City Summit Alliance to join a task force for modernizing income security for adults. As a result of his advocacy work, the Toronto Star recognized Minister Hussen in 2004 as one of 10 individuals in Toronto to have made substantial contributions to the community.

Reza Pourvaziry

Chair of Urban Economy Forum & Co-Chair of UEF 2020

Reza Pourvaziry is an architect holding a master’s degree in Architecture  from Iran, as well as an urban researcher working in this field for over 25 years. His research focuses on the concept of architecture and process of design and sustainability which were presented in articles at international conferences and featured in newspaper. He established International Art & Architecture Research Association (IAARA) in 2002 to work and research about urban architecture about habitat and settlement with focus on sustainability. He has done architecture projects that he received international architecture awards, including world architecture community for Nashr Yadavaran Administrative Building and housing project for Atlas of unbuilt world by British Council. He was part of jury and steering committee and scientific committee of programs in the field of art & architecture and urbanism. He created different development projects and programs and started working as member of Steering Committee of UN-Habitat’s best practices since 2004. He continues to work closely with UN-Habitat and was designated by under-secretary-general of UN and former Executive Director of UN-Habitat as First Global Advocate of UN-Habitat in 2016 and was introduced at 40th anniversary of UN-Habitat which was celebrated at Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016. He established Middle East Regional Center for Best Practise and Local Leadership in 2012 –2014. In 2014, Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Iran recognized him as one of the contemporary architects in the book ‘contemporary architecture’ and since then he worked as president and co-founder of International City Leaders and he was designated for City Prosperity Initiative –Metropolitan Cities initiative by UN-Habitat. ICL and UN-Habitat work together on various research, workshops and conferences and one of the main publications is World Cities Report launched in 2016. At present he is chair of Urban Economy Forum working on urban architecture projects globally.

Jan Vapaavuori
Mayor of Helsinki, Finland 

Mr. Jan Vapaavuori became the first Mayor of Helsinki in June 2017 after winning the election with a record number of support. As his first task he set forth a city strategy, laying ground for an ambitious four-year agenda. The strategy champions Helsinki as the “most functional city in the world” with a special focus on sustainable growth, digitalization, global problem solving, creativity and the best possible conditions for happy everyday city life. The strategy also defined Helsinki as a test-bed for start-ups and smart city development projects resulting in an increased global relevance for the city. From 2012 to 2015 Mr. Vapaavuori served as the Minister of Economic Affairs in the Finnish National Government, responsible for international trade and innovation. In 2007 – 2011 he was the Minister of Housing. Since 2015 he worked as Vice President of the European Investment Bank. As Minister of Economic Affairs, he negotiated the Meyer Turku shipyard sale that played a key role in renewing the Finnish maritime industry. As the Minister of Housing Mr. Vapaavuori created a program that resulted in a decrease of long-term homelessness by fifty percent - a model that has since gained international recognition.

Chris Williams
Head of New York Office and North America, UN-Habitat

Chris Williams serves as Director of the New York Office of UN-Habitat, the organization of the United Nations responsible for housing and urban development based in Nairobi, Kenya. He represents UN-Habitat in inter-governmental and inter-agency processes, and facilitate cooperation with partners based in North America.

Heela Omarkhail
Vice President of Social Impact, The Daniels Corporation

Heela Omarkhail is Vice President, Social Impact at The Daniels Corporation, a leading builder-developer in Toronto, Canada. Heela is responsible for corporate mandates and strategic initiatives that look beyond the bricks and mortar to ensure that the social, cultural and economic infrastructures of communities built by Daniels are as strong as the new buildings. Since 2009, Heela has been working on Phases 1, 2 and 3 of the revitalization of Regent Park in Toronto’s Downtown East. The revitalization of the 69-acre social housing neighbourhood to a mixed-income and mixed-use community is looked to around the world as a model for creating healthy, inclusive and resilient communities.

Julie Ward
Co-Chair of Urban Economy Forum & Former British Member of European Parliament

Julie was a Labour and Co-operative Party Member of the European Parliament for the North West of England, covering Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester. As such she was a member of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and, in turn, part of the second largest group in the European Parliament, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Julie served on the Parliament's Culture & Education Committee, the Regional Development Committee and the Committee on Gender Equality and Women's Rights. She is also a member of the Labour Party's Policy Commission on Education and Children. Julie is an active campaigner for equal rights and social justice, and was previously an organizer for One Billion Rising, the global movement to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. First elected in May 2014, Julie previously had a long career in the cultural sector, working with marginalized communities using arts as a tool for wellbeing, empowerment and social change. Prior to being elected as an MEP, Julie had been working with partners in the EU and beyond for more than a decade. For instance, she was involved in an international delegation to Belfast to participate in an all-party discussion about the role of the arts in peace-building processes.

Anantha Krishnan
Secretary General & Steering Committee Co-Chair of UEF

Mr. Krishnan has over 36 years of experience in international development work, including over 15 years of work with the UN in in Nairobi Kenya ( UNEP and UN Habitat) engaged in Youth empowerment initiatives, policy and research, CSR, advocacy, program management including development and implementation of projects. Recent work includes a consultancy assignment for the Norwegian Government , a strategy document for UNIDO on youth employment and entrepreneurship. Very recently a position paper was developed by him for UN-Habitat on Urban Basic Services. he has also conducted housing market studies in Myanmar, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Currently associated with organizations in China and the UN on setting up a Youth entrepreneurship Award. Currently he is also associated with the International Centre for energy, environment and Development (ICEED Nigeria) engaged in clean and safe fuel and energy to internally displaced persons.

He has worked at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Environment. Other organizations that I has been with in Norway include the International Peace Research Institute, Forum for Environment and development and the Anti-racist Centre and NORAD, the Norwegian agency for international development. He has lived and worked in Tanzania, India, Kenya and the UK. He is a Rotarian in Nigeria. He is a Norwegian national of Indian origin with strong African connections. 

Kamran Hassani-Espili
Executive Director and Member of the Board of UEF & Professor of CDI College

Mr. Kamran is a network system and industrial engineer who has been involved in designing and executing business and development initiatives. He comes with academic knowledge along with comprehensive professional experience in the network, database, feasibility study, business plan and development projects. He is a professor at CDI College and continues to engage in development projects.

Massoud Ghandchi
President and Founder of Ghandchi Organization

Massoud is the Founder and President of Mer/Ax Investments and Development. He has been involved in numerous multi-million dollar real estate project of various kinds. With over 15 years of experience in commercial and residential real estate, Massoud specializes in applying his expertise and market knowledge around Greater Toronto Area to successfully guide local, national and international clients with their commercial and residential real estate transactions; obtaining the ability to provide the necessary solutions with the client’s interest first. Massoud’s extensive experience in powerful negotiations, commitment to honest communications and intelligent use of the latest technology in real estate are examples of some of his ingredients to a successful career in real estate.

Eduardo Lopez Moreno
Head of Knowledge and Innovation, UN-Habitat & Honourary Chair of Urban Economy Forum 

Eduardo López Moreno, is an architect from the University of Guadalajara with more than 25 years of academic and professional experience in the areas of urban development and housing policy, poverty reduction, governance and institutional analysis. His studies include a Doctorate in urban geography at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France and a master's degree in urban sociology from the University Paris, Saint Denis, France. Eduardo López Moreno has five books on issues related to social housing, land policies, urban development and urban history. His book "The Grid in the Development of the Hispano-American City" received the Jalisco Research Award and has been published in several editions. He has published more than 30 articles in national and international magazines on urban policies, urban history, poverty and housing financing.

Douglas Ragan
Programme Management Officer of UN-Habitat

Douglas Ragan has worked in youth development with NGOs, local and national governments and the United Nations for the past 25 years. Currently he is the Unit Leader for Youth and Livelihoods for UN-Habitat, managing UN-Habitat’s Global portfolio on youth development in over 75 developing countries. The programmes focus on urban youth development, including youth employment, governance and participation. He manages three flagship youth programmes for UN-Habitat: the Urban Youth Fund, Youth 21 initiative and the One Stop Youth Resource Centres. Douglas has authored and co-authored a number of research and policy publications on urban youth issues faced by marginalized young people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Doug holds a Bachelors Degree in Latin American Studies, a Masters Degree in Management for the Voluntary Sector and is currently working undertaking a PhD in urban planning, with a focus on youth-led organizations in slums

Jesse Denison
Head of Preschool and Lower School, Bayview Glen School

Jesse Denison is the Director of Teacher and Learning at Bayview Glen School