Schedule- Placemaking Leadership Forum

An urbanist and civic entrepreneur, Mary’s career has involved creating local, national, and international learning networks of urban practitioners, and developing local innovations that foster livability and resilience. Throughout her extensive work with government, business, and civil society organizations, she has focused particularly on the ways a city’s built environment shapes its economic, social, environmental and cultural performance. Her tenure in New York City follows five years of... Read More →

José Chong is an Urban Planner and Licentiate Architect. He holds Master degrees in Renewal Energies, Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism, and in International Cooperation & Urban Development and Sustainable Emergency Architecture. He is currently the Technical Advisor of the Global... Read More →

Thomas is a regeneration architect, impact entrepreneur and futures thinker. He is the founder and visionary behind CLEAR VILLAGE. In 2016 Thomas co-authored Recoded City: Co-creating Urban Futures, an exploration of alternative urban design and architecture focusing on the relationship... Read More →

With nearly 10 years experience in landscape architecture and 16 years of experience working with UN-Habitat and other international organizations, Rony has extensive professional experience managing and monitoring projects relating to governance, humanitarian and development interventions... Read More →

Ethan Kent works to support Placemaking organizations, projects, and leadership around the world. During over 18 years at PPS, Ethan has traveled to more than 750 cities and 55 countries to advance the cause of Placemaking and public spaces. Ethan has been integral to the development... Read More →

Michael Mehaffy is Academic Chair of the Future of Places conference, a partnership of UN-Habitat, Project for Public Spaces, and the Ax:son Johnson Foundation. He is also Executive Director of Portland, Oregon based Sustasis Foundation, an urban research and development center.

Elisa is the founder and Program Director at Rujak Center for Urban Studies (RCUS), Indonesia. RCUS was founded to fill the gap in necessary process of transition into the ecological age. The vision of RCUS is working together with communities in generating innovating knowledge and... Read More →

Ming Zhang is sector manager for urban and water for the South Asia region of the World Bank. He has more than 15 years’ experience with the Bank, covering urban development, infrastructure, local government, and decentralization. He has worked on many countries in several regions... Read More →