As Policy Director for EUROCITIES, she is responsible for urban policies related to economic development, innovation, employment, education, migration and social inclusion. She is leading on the implementation of European Commission grants for policy change and mutual learning (peer-reviews, study visits, urban innovation labs, co-creation), as well as for policy oriented research (analysis of good practice, trends and challenges). She is a member of the European high-level and multi-stakeholders platform on SDG. Regarding policy areas, she is responsible for: jobs and skills, life-long learning, inclusive labour market, housing & urban regeneration, health and well-being, place marketing & city branding, innovation, start-ups, industry 4.0, EU funds, public procurement.

Kristyn Wong-Tam was elected to Toronto City Council in 2010 and has an extensive career investing in the city through both the public and private sectors. Her contributions have led to the development and support of improved social planning programs, new affordable housing, innovative economic development programs, community art projects, and investments in diverse, family-friendly neighbourhood planning. She has led efforts to defend the rights of tenants to obtain affordable and decent standards of rental housing and helped create a neighbourhood association to preserve and protect heritage buildings and historical landscapes in the ward. 

Kristyn is currently the vice-Chair of the Toronto Board of Health and Chair of the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee, which provides advice to City Council on the identification, prevention, and elimination of barriers faced by people with disabilities with the goal of achieving social, cultural and economic well-being. Kristyn is a founding board member of the Toronto Biennial of Art and was voted Toronto's Best City Councillor by NOW magazine readers four years in a row (2015-2018) and again in 2020.

Councillor John Alexander is the Leader of Dundee City Council. In this role, John has responsibility for guiding the city’s significant regeneration which is coupled with, what has been termed, a ‘cultural renaissance’ – with the city recently receiving international praise and attention.

He is currently the youngest council leader in Scotland at the age of 29 and has been a councillor for 5 years, holding senior positions since 2013 including convener of Housing and Convener of Neighbourhood Services.

As the political head of the council, John sets the strategic direction of the city’s agenda, policy development and leads several key bodies including the Dundee Partnership.

More recently, John has taken on the role of Chair of the Scottish Cities Alliance, an organisation which is a unique collaboration of the seven cities in partnership with the Scottish Government. The Alliance is focused on economic development and promoting investment opportunities across the cities.

Biography is not available. 

Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri is the 16th president of the American University of Beirut (AUB). Khuri is an accomplished molecular and translational oncologist, having authored over 750 publications, he served for 10 years from 2011-2021 as editor-in-chief of the journal Cancer.

Since assuming the presidency, Khuri has greatly increased external and institutional support for students through new and expanded scholarship and financial aid programs. He has helped obtain grants and donations for underprivileged students and patients totaling over $250 million.

Khuri brought to AUB a new vision for health that takes an all-encompassing approach to human health, including mental health, nutrition, agriculture, nursing, public health, science, and clinical medicine. Since 2015, AUB has introduced new PhD programs in epidemiology and chemistry, as well as an interdisciplinary, inter-faculty PhD program in biomedical engineering. In 2019, the university established the Talal and Madiha Zein AUB Innovation Park to nurture startups and cultivate an entrepreneurship ecosystem in Lebanon. This period also saw the elevation of the Hariri School of Nursing to independent faculty status, and the naming of the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture in honor of alumnus Maroun Semaan following his transformative gift to AUB, the largest in the university’s history.

In 2018, Khuri spearheaded the effort to transform AUB into a fully tobacco-free campus and was awarded the World No Tobacco Day Award by the WHO. Khuri’s work has been recognized with several major awards including the 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award of the Middle East Medical Assembly for “research that has changed the way we think about and treat lung and head and neck cancer,” the 2010 Waun Ki Hong Distinguished Professorship by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2007), a fellow of the American College of Physicians (2009) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015), and a member of the Lebanese Academy of Sciences (2015).

Marcela Eslava is Professor and Dean of Economics at Universidad de Los Andes, in Bogotá, and a research affiliate of LACEA and the IPA’s SME program. She holds a PhD degree from University of Maryland at College Park. Her current research interests include the effect of the COVID19 crisis on the labor market and firms in developing economies; the relationship between firm dynamics and regulations; the relationship between business growth and the evolution of productivity vs. demand at the firm; the effect of credit constraints on business performance and aggregate productivity, and the policy alternatives to address financial restrictions to businesses. Her research has been published in leading academic journals such as the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics; the Review of Economic Dynamics; the Journal of Public Economics; and the Journal of Development Economics. She has been awarded the Global Development Network’s Medal for Research on Development, and the Latin American Econometric Society’s Mario Henrique Simonsen Memorial Lecture. She was also chief co-editor for Economia, the journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, LACEA. Marcela is also a voting member of the Latin American Standing Committee of the Econometric Society; and member of board of Trustees of the Research Institute for Development, Growth and Economics, RIDGE.

Daniele Ietri (1980 - @danieleietri) is full professor of Geography at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen.

His research is mainly focused on the study of regional competitiveness and the elaboration of local development policies, with a focus on inner/internal and peripheral areas. He also conducted several research projects on the issues of urban competitiveness, authoring or co-authoring papers and books with Italian and international publishers such as Routledge, Edward Elgar, Rubbettino, Mimesis.

Daniele also works on the use of documentary films as a tool for the on-the-field research and mean of dissemination. In 2013 he founded Associazione La Fournaise (http://www.lafournaise.it), a group of researchers and filmmakers that has been producing documentary films screened in festivals, theatres and events in Italy and abroad. 

He is member of the Council of the Global Urban Competitiveness Project (http://www.gucp-us.org), a network of academics and professionals specialised in the research on urban competitiveness at the international level.

He ideated and coordinates, with Eleonora Mastropietro, “Studi sul Qui” (http://www.studisulqui.it), a research project on the study and representation of the contemporary in “inner” and “peripheral” areas and - at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen - he is responsible of the deep_map_lab, a laboratory intended to produce deep maps of territories and supporting the elaboration of policies (http://deepmap.projects.unibz.it).

He is Research Director of the “Regions” program at 89Initiative (http://89initiative.com/research/), a think-do-tank intended to support the European project fostering the debate on cutting-edge topics, with an emphasis on the contribution by new generations of Europeans.

In 2021 he was appointed external expert at the Valle d’Aosta Region for the elaboration and assessment of programs funded by the European structural and investment funds (https://new.regione.vda.it/europa/europa) and became member of the Scientific committee of CesUE, Centro studi, formazione, comunicazione e progettazione sull’Unione Europea e la global governance (http://www.cesue.eu).

Anumita Roychowdhury is Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi-based think tank. She has had a distinguished career in research, communication and advocacy on sustainable urbanisation, encompassing clean air action, clean and low carbon mobility and sustainable buildings and habitat, to address the growing public health and climate crisis. She has worked extensively to build the campaign on Right to Clean Air that has catalysed several developments. She is deeply involved with the initiatives of the state governments to frame and implement clean air action plans and green building and sustainable habitat initiatives in India. She has written and published widely on environmental issues. She has also played a strong international role and participated as a member and an advisor in national and international committees and organisations. She is a recipient of the prestigious 2017 Haagen Smit Clean Air Award given by the California Air Resources Board/California Environmental Protection Agency of the State of California, USA. 

Djamel Hamadou is a 48 years Old Architect. After being graduate in Architecture (Ecole d’Architecture de Nantes - France), Civil Enginering (Institut Universitaire de Technologie – Lyon- France) and Urban studies (Université de la Sorbonne - Paris), he worked in urban planning and développement for public authorities in Caen, Rennes and Rosny-sous-Bois (Suburb of Paris). He also taught urban développement in connection with the environnemental crisis during 7 years in the University of Sorbonne, Paris. Curently, in charge of an "Urban Planning and Development" Department of the Grand Paris Grand Est Territory (14 municipalities, 385,000 inhabitants) constituting a part of the Metropolis of Grand Paris. His Works have been particularly focused on urban planning and urban developpement projects with ambitious ecological level purpoose through a concept: Urbanplanning of Environmental Anticipation of wich he is the author.

Dr. Rachel Dodds is a Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management as well as past Director of the Hospitality and Tourism Research Institute, opens in new window. Rachel has over 25 years of tourism experience working with tour operators, destination management companies, accommodation facilities, festivals and non profit organizations and still works actively with industry in her role as a consultant to help the tourism industry more sustainable.

Rachel holds a PhD from the University of Surrey in the UK and a Masters degree from Australia. She has lived and worked in four continents and travelled to over 80 countries.

For her research contribution to the university, Rachel has received ongoing recognition including the 2018 TRSM Research Award, and 2014 and 2010 Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award. She has also been twice awarded the Emerald Literati Outstanding Researcher Award for her journal article contributions.

Rachel also spends time consulting in the hospitality and tourism industry and provided research and sustainable tourism expertise to global banks, destinations, accommodations, festivals and tour operators.

Frank, Broker/Owner of ie Realty Inc, Investor & B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, has been working as a Real Estate Investor for over 25 years, from Buying and Selling to Land Development and Building Houses. On i.e. Realty we focus on Virtual office and using High Tech to have more benefit for our Investors and not only we do support our Investors but also as Investor ourselves we can provide better advice and guidelines to our investors.

Our investors getting high satisfaction from our Negotiation Skills, Business and Economy Analysis, Property Management Team, and Development and Building Customized House Management Team from A to Z.

Giuseppe Tesoriere is senior regional and urban economist in the Cities Research and Knowledge Exchange at World Resources Institute. He leads and conducts economic analyses that help address key knowledge gaps and advance the objectives of WRI Ross Center project teams working globally across urban issues.

Prior to joining WRI, Giuseppe was senior economist (consultant) at UN-Habitat knowledge and innovation branch, and urban economy and finance branch, leading research and analysis, providing advisory support and policy recommendations across a number of fields, including urban economics, mobility, economic geography, housing and innovation in Africa, Middle East, and Latin America. He also has several years’ experience conducting data collection, and studies focussed on agglomeration economies, inequality, and public goods working with World Bank and African Development Bank urban programmes and projects in Eastern Africa. 

In academia, he granted a research fellowship financed by European Union – Interreg V Programme, focussed on regional economics, innovation and spatial inequalities. 

Giuseppe received his PhD in Economics with a thesis on public goods in developing countries cities from “Kore” University of Enna (Italy). He also has holds a Master of Science in Economics and Management of Territory and Tourism University of Palermo (Italy) and has completed various certification courses, prominent ones “Executive Education Programme on Leading Economic Growth” and “Executive Education Programme on Public Finance Management in developing countries” from Harvard Kennedy School; "MIT Metro Lab Initiative" certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Overall, he is author of more than thirty quantitative and qualitative research published in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings, discussion papers and United Nations reports.

Experienced Factory manager with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, Operations Management, Analytical Skills, and Supply Chain Optimization.

Osama M. Al-Rawi is an Associate professor in Electrical and Electronics Engineering/ Control System Engineering. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering/ Control System Engineering from the University of Technology, Baghdad/Iraq, in 1995 and 2003, respectively. 

His B. Sc. Degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Technology, 1989. His professional experience includes teaching and research at the university as well as working in industry. He had 30 years’ experience working in academic Institutions and more than 10 years’ practical experience working in industry. He supervised many postgraduate students and presented many seminars in different fields. He published a lot of researches in prestigious journals, conference proceedings and he published a book chapter in his field of specialization. His theoretical and practical research interests include modelling and stability of automatic control systems, optimization problems, Artificial Intelligence, power electronics applications, electrical machines control and renewable energy. He is a member in association of Iraqi University lecturers, Baghdad/ Iraq, 2005, member of Iraqi Laser Society, Baghdad/ Iraq, 2005, member of Iraqi Engineers Union, Baghdad/ Iraq, 1989 and IEEE member in Bahrain IEEE section since 2014. Also he is a Fellow at FHEA-UK, 2020. Currently, he is the Dean of College of Engineering, Gulf University/Kingdom of Bahrain since 2016. Previously he was the Director of Scientific Research and Community Services Directorate/Gulf University, for two years.