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Speakers
Top scientists, business leaders and policy-makers from India and around the world are invited to discuss how cities in fast-growing countries like India are tackling the combined challenges of facilitating economic growth, while controlling both the environmental and social impact of rapid development.
Following speakers have confirmed:
- Afshin Afshari
- Afshin Afshari, Professor, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Masdar City
- Anjalika Bardalai
- Moderator, Senior Editor/Economist, Economist Intelligence Unit
- Joan Clos
- Executive Director, UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Kenya
- Peter Gruss
- President, Max Planck Society, Germany
- Sumila Gulyani
- Head, Urbanization Knowledge Platform, World Bank.
- S Y Kulkarni
- Professor, Dept. of Architecture & Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
- Barbara Kux
- Member of the Managing Board and Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens AG
- Steffen Lehmann
- UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, Founding Director of the Lab Space Laboratory for Architectural Research and Design (Sydney-Berlin), Australia
- Peter Löscher
- President and CEO, Siemens AG, Germany
- Om Prakash Mathur
- Professor, Urban Economics and Finance, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, India
- Delia Meth-Cohn
- Moderator, Editorial Director CEMEA, Economist Intelligence Unit
- Robert Neuwirth
- Author of Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, USA
- Sheela Patel
- Director, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC)
- Sanjiv Rai
- Managing Director and CEO, Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon and ITNL Enso Rail Systems, India
- Shirish Sankhe
- Director, McKinsey & Company Mumbai, India
- Naresh Trehan
- Chairman and Managing Director of Medanta - The Medicity
- Steven Vertovec
- Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany
- Nicholas You
- Chairman of the World Urban Campaign Steering Committee
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Afshin Afshari,
Professor, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Masdar CityTopAfshin Afshari is currently Professor at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology where he manages a number of collaborative R&D projects. Previously, he was head of Masdar City’s Energy Management Department where he specified and enforced—at design and operational stages—key performance indicators for energy efficiency, demand-side management and smart grid. He also conducted pilot and feasibility projects, citywide energy modelling, financial and economic analysis, and risk assessments. Dr Afshari has more than 15 years of experience in the field of energy management, including 10 years in management positions. Before joining Masdar, he worked for International Energy Group (UAE), Silicon Energy (USA), Raab Karcher Energy Services (Germany) and Schlumberger Research (France). He also spent 4 years overseeing the commercialisation of the intellectual property portfolio of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Quebec in Montreal (Canada). Dr Afshari is a Professional Engineer with a PhD in Physic from the University of Paris (France) and an MBA from INSEAD (France). He has three registered patents (two US and one European) and numerous articles published in conference proceedings, academic and trade journals and books.
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Anjalika Bardalai,
Moderator, Senior Editor/Economist, Economist Intelligence UnitTopAs the Economist Intelligence Unit's senior analyst covering South Asia, Anjalika Bardalai leads the company's political and economic analysis and forecasting for India and Pakistan. Anjalika has given numerous presentations to senior executives at major corporations, and at conferences on four continents. She is a frequent commentator on the BBC, CNN International and CNBC and is quoted extensively in international and Indian newspapers. She is also the manager of Country Reports, the Economist Intelligence Unit's flagship report, and is responsible for producing Country by Country, the company's annual forecasting guide. Prior to joining the company's London headquarters, she worked in the New York office managing Country Finance, which covers financial institutions and financing methods in 45 countries.
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Joan Clos,
Executive Director, UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, KenyaTopJoan Clos took over as head of the Nairobi-based UN-Habitat in October 2010, following a distinguished career in public service and diplomacy. He was twice elected Mayor of Barcelona, serving two terms during the years 1997-2006. He was appointed Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade of Spain (2006-2008). Prior to joining the United Nations, he served as Spanish ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Dr Clos trained as a medical doctor, specialised in Public Health and Epidemiology. He joined the Barcelona Municipal Government in 1979 as Director of Public Health. As a city councillor between 1983 and 1987, he earned a reputation for improving municipal management and for urban renewal projects, notably managing the renovation of downtown Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella district. From 1990 to 1994 he was Deputy Mayor in change of Finance and Budgeting, playing a key role during the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Joan Clos is also widely credited with inspiring far-reaching investment programmes for Barcelona. One of the most ambitious was the Barcelona@22 programme which gave the city’s dilapidated industrial zones a facelift. In 2004 one of these newly refurbished neighbourhoods near the old dockyards was chosen as the site for the second gathering of UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Forum, the premier global conference on cities.
At the international level, he was elected President of Metropolis, the international network of cities in 1998. Two years later, he was elected President of the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities (WACLAC). Between 2000 and 2007, he served as Chairman of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA). And between 1997 and 2003, he was member of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, (CEMR).
Dr. Clos received a number of awards which include a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1999 for transforming Barcelona. In 2002, he won the UN-HABITAT Scroll of Honour Award for encouraging global cooperation between local authorities and the United Nations. -
Peter Gruss,
President, Max Planck Society, GermanyTopPeter Gruss has been President of the Max Planck Society since 2002. He became a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society in 1986, when he was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. Peter Gruss earned his PhD in biology at the University of Heidelberg and is honorary professor at the University of Göttingen.
As President of the Max Planck Society, Peter Gruss holds numerous offices and functions. Among others, he is a member of the Alliance of Scientific Organizations in Germany, EUROHORCs and ESF, as well as member of the Senates of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering. In addition, he is member of the University Council of Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich, of the Supervisory Boards of Siemens AG and Munich RE, as well as of the Advisory Board of Deloitte. He was appointed a member of the "Innovation Dialogue" of the Federal Chancellery by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Peter Gruss began his scientific career as a research assistant at the Institute for Virus Research in Heidelberg in 1977. From there, he moved on to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, initially as a post-doc associate, and later as an expert consultant. In 1982, he was appointed as Professor at the Institute for Microbiology at the University of Heidelberg. Over the years, he has received several honours, including the Leibniz Prize, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, the German Prize for Technology and Innovation by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Lower Saxony State Prize, as well as the German Federal Cross of Merit. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. -
Sumila Gulyani
Head, Urbanization Knowledge Platform, World Bank.TopSumila Gulyani took over as head of the World Bank’s Urbanization Knowledge Platform in 2011 after four years as Sector Leader for Sustainable Development for six African countries, based in Kenya. She was also the Lead Urban Specialist and Team Leader for a series of World Bank-supported urban programmes aimed at assisting the Kenyan government in catalyzing transformation of the urban and local government sector in the country. These include two national programmes—the Kenya Municipal Project and the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project—which are bringing US$320 million of investments in governance, planning and infrastructure in 15 of Kenya’s largest cities. In addition to Africa, she has worked in East and South East Asia, South Asia, Central America, and North America. From 2005-2007, Dr. Gulyani was at Columbia University in New York where she held the position of Assistant Professor and also served as the founding Director of the Infrastructure and Poverty Action Lab. Dr. Gulyani received her Ph.D. in Economic Development and Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also holds a graduate degree in architecture. She is the author of the book Innovating with Infrastructure (2001) and of several articles on water, electricity, transport, and slums. Her recent research includes analytical frameworks for understanding poverty and living conditions in slums; comparative State of the City baselines in 15 cities in Kenya; and inequality in access to infrastructure in three capital cities in Africa.
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S Y Kulkarni,
Professor, Dept. of Architecture & Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, RoorkeeTopProf. S Y Kulkarni is a professor of architecture and former head of the department of architecture and planning at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Professor Kulkarni has a vast teaching and research experience in the field of architecture and has research papers and consultancy projects to his credit. His main interest lies in green buildings and also energy conservation in historical buildings. Prof Kulkarni has been on the faculty since 1977. From January 1987 to July 1989, he was a visiting professor at the Department of Architecture of Baghdad Technologia and also at the University of Mosul in Iraq. He was also a visiting faculty at the Department of Architecture in Nepal Engineering College at Kathmandu, Nepal during the summer of 1999. He has guided two PhD theses, and two more are in progress. In addition to this, he has guided more than 20 Masters Dissertations and several final year undergraduate projects. He has also won a design competition of a Memorial Park for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in Moradabad, UP. He prepared campus master plan: Vision 2020 for the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Presently he is working on a complete township for National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) India near Joshimath in Uttarakhand, India. Born in 1948, Prof. S Y Kulkarni graduated in architecture in 1971 from Nagpur University and obtained his Masters of Architecture degree in 1977 from the erstwhile University of Roorkee now IIT Roorkee.
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Barbara Kux,
Member of the Managing Board and Chief Sustainability Officer, Siemens AGTopBarbara Kux is a Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG.
Her specific responsibilities include Supply Chain Management and Sustainability. As Chief Sustainability Officer she took over the marketing of the environmental portfolio, which grew in revenue from 19 billion Euros (2008) to 28 billion Euros (2010). She has introduced a comprehensive Sustainability Program leading to the recognition of Siemens by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as Sector Leader in 2009 and 2010. Siemens was also selected as Best Global Company by the Carbon Disclosure Project.
She started off her career as a consultant at Mc Kinsey & Company, Inc., Germany, in 1984, taking up major assignments for global clients. From 1989 on she held top management positions in leading international companies and was a Member of the Group Management Committee at Royal Philips Electronics, before she was appointed the first woman to the Managing Board of Siemens in the company’s over 160-year history.
After her studies in Switzerland and the US, Barbara earned her MBA with Distinction at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. Wall Street Journal and Fortune have recognized her among “Leading International Business Women” and the World Economic Forum in Davos named her as Global Leader of Tomorrow.
Barbara has been a Member of the Board of Directors of INSEAD since 2003, and is a Member of the Supervisory Board of Total S.A., France. -
Steffen Lehmann,
UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, Founding Director of the Lab Space Laboratory for Architectural Research and Design (Sydney-Berlin), AustraliaTopDr. Steffen Lehmann, AA Dip, is a German-born architect and urbanist. He heads the sd+b research centre and has been a full professor in Australia since December 2002 and the holder of the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, since 2008.
Prof Lehmann has been a registered and licensed architect and urban designer in Berlin since 1992, establishing his own practice, the Space Laboratory for Architectural Research and Design (s_Lab), to pursue a more ethically correct practice. He was actively involved in the architectural creation of the ‘New Berlin’ in the 1990s, for instance at Potsdamer Platz. Over the past 20 years, he has won a number of competition awards and prizes in sustainable architecture, and published books on architectural and urban design, including The Principles of Green Urbanism. Transforming the City for Sustainability and the forthcoming book, Designing for Zero Waste.
In 2009 he was the DAAD Visiting Professor at TU Munich, and a Visiting Professor at the National University Singapore; in 2005 at Tongji University in Shanghai and at TU Berlin. He regularly provides high-level independent advice to governments, municipalities and industry worldwide on matters relating to design, the integration of low-carbon technologies, identifying long-term challenges and opportunities for cities. He has been a planning advisor to a dozen cities, including Berlin, Helsinki, Shanghai, Singapore, Ho-Chi-Minh City, Abu Dhabi, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and others.
Steffen Lehmann is the curator of international exhibition projects (in Berlin, Cologne, Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore, Chongqing), the General-Editor of the US-based academic Journal of Green Building (since 2006), and a member of the Editorial Board of five academic journals. -
Peter Löscher,
President and CEO, Siemens AG, GermanyTopPeter Löscher has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG since July 1, 2007. He has many years of international management and leadership experience in a variety of companies both in and outside Germany – for example, Merck & Co. Inc. (U.S.), General Electric (U.S., UK), Amersham plc. (UK), Aventis Pharma Ltd. (Japan), the Hoechst Group (Germany, Spain, U.S., UK, Japan) and Kienbaum und Partner (Germany). Mr. Löscher studied economics at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Advanced Management Program. Peter Löscher is a member of the Supervisory Board of Munich RE, Chairman of the Asia Pacific Committee of the German Economy (APA), Vice Chairman of the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT), and Co-Chairman of the EU-Russia Industrialists’ Roundtable (IRT). He also holds positions in a number of scientific, social and cultural organizations. He was born in Villach, Austria, is married and has three children.
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Om Prakash Mathur,
Professor, Urban Economics and Finance, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, IndiaTopOm Prakash Mathur is a Distinguished Professor of Urban Economics at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi, India. He has held the IDFC Chair in Urban Economics and Finance at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi for over 15 years. Professor Mathur is a member of the Prime Minister’s National Review Committee on the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Asian Development Bank-GTZ Programme on City Development Initiative for Asia and of the Advisory Committee of the World Bank’s Global City Indicators Facility. He served from 1978 to 1984 as Senior Economic Planner at the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan, and from 1975 to 1978, as a United Nations Senior Regional Planning Adviser/Project Manager with the Government of Iran. Professor Mathur holds a Master’s degree in Economic from the Delhi School of Economics and did graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (USA) and Harvard University, Cambridge (USA).
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Delia Meth-Cohn,
Moderator, Editorial Director CEMEA, Economist Intelligence UnitTopDelia Meth-Cohn is the Editorial Director for Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa, responsible for leading the Economist Group’s content services in the region, including the Economist Corporate Network, a peer network for senior decision makers of multinational companies operating in emerging markets. She recently launched the Africa Business Group for companies expanding across the continent. Delia chairs and speaks at conferences around the world and frequently provides in-house briefings to senior executives at international companies. She has worked with the Economist Group since 1993, when she joined and later became editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Business Central Europe. She has an MA in International Politics from Columbia University and a BA from Durham University. She is married with two children.
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Robert Neuwirth,
Author of Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, USATopRobert Neuwirth lived in shantytowns across the developing world for almost two years to write Shadow Cities. This controversial book, which appeared in 2005, argues that squatting is an ancient and legitimate form of urban development and that informal settlements have their own forms of vibrancy and self-organisation that will be important parts of the cities of the future. Our challenge, he says, is not to end poverty or control populations, but to engage and empower the residents in these "cities of tomorrow." Neuwirth is currently writing a book on the informal economy.
Neuwirth has written for many publications, including The Nation, Fortune, Metropolis, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York, The Village Voice, Mother Jones and Wired, and has worked as a business reporter, a political reporter and an investigative reporter on the staff of a variety of newspapers, news magazines, and television stations. His work on squatters was supported in part by a research and writing grant from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. -
Sheela Patel,
Director, Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC)TopSheela Patel is widely recognised for putting the issues of urban poverty, housing and infrastructure onto the radar of governments, bilateral and international agencies, foundations and other organisations.
Ms Patel founded SPARC in 1984 with the aim of supporting urban poor in Mumbai in their efforts to access housing and basic services. Under her leadership SPARC has partnered with the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan, two community-based national networks of the urban poor, working in 70 cities throughout India, to develop community-driven strategies to advance address poverty and governance.
Since 1999, she has also been Secretary and Chief Executive of SPARC Samudaya Nirman Sahayak, a non-profit company set up to assist slum communities developing housing and sanitation projects. She is also one of the founders and current chairperson of Slum/Shack Dwellers International, a transnational federation of local organisations of the urban poor.
Ms Patel is currently on the Technical Advisory Group of the Ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and also a member of the Prime Minister Review Committee on JNNURM. She has been associated with or is currently involved as Chair or Board Member/Trustee of many organisations, including the Society for Participatory Research in Asia, the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank and the International Institute of Environment and Development. She was also a member of the MDG Task Force on improving the lives of slum dwellers and advisor to the UNDP Commission for the Legal Empowerment of the Urban Poor.
Ms Patel graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. For ten years she worked as a counsellor at the Nagpada Neighbourhood House, a community centre in the inner city of Mumbai. She received the United Nations Habitat Award in 2000 and the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership award in 2009. -
Sanjiv Rai,
Managing Director and CEO, Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon and ITNL Enso Rail Systems, IndiaTopCo-founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ITNL ENSO Rail Systems Pvt. Ltd (IERS), Sanjiv Rai has worked in the infrastructure business for the past 22 years with ABB, Alstom, Motorola and Bombardier in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Throughout his career Mr Rai has been involved in a range wide range of successful power, communications and rail projects in the US, Malaysia, China, India, Korea and Taiwan. He specialises in finance, operations and marketing.
In late 2007, he relocated to New Delhi to co-found IERS, which is focusing on developing, financing and operating mass transit rail systems globally. The company made its first investment in the Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon Project, expected to be operational in early 2013.
Mr. Rai is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and received senior management training at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland. -
Shirish Sankhe,
Director, McKinsey & Company Mumbai, IndiaTopShirish Sankhe is a Director in the Mumbai office of McKinsey & Company. He joined McKinsey & Company in 1996. He is the Asian leader of McKinsey’s Global Energy and Materials Practice.
Dr. Sankhe recently led the team that published the report on India’s urbanization, India’s urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth. In 2000-01, he led the team that presented to the Prime Minister and India’s policy-makers how India can achieve 10% GDP growth.
Dr. Sankhe is a graduate of the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Bombay (UDCT). -
Naresh Trehan,
Chairman and Managing Director of Medanta - The MedicityTopDr Naresh Trehan is a renowned cardiovascular and cardiothoracic surgeon. He is currently the Chairman of Medanta, The Medicity, a 1,600 bed multi-speciality institution which matches the highest standards of healthcare delivery across the world at an affordable cost. Dr Trehan graduated from King George's Medical College, Lucknow and completed his internship at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. He subsequently obtained a diplomate from the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the United States at New York University Medical Center. After obtaining his degrees, Dr Trehan was in private practice at NYU Medical Center from 1979 to 1988, when he returned to India to set up Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, which he ran for 20 years. Dr Trehan has received many prestigious awards, including the Padma Shree and the Padma Bhushan Award, by the Government of India. In 2004-05, he was the President of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Surgery (ISMICS) in Minneapolis, USA and has also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from three prestigious universities.
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Steven Vertovec,
Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, GermanyTopSteven Vertovec heads the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Previously he was Professor of Transnational Anthropology at the University of Oxford and Director of the British Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society. His main research interests are around global migration, diasporas and ethnic diversity. Prof. Vertovec has authored three books, including Transnationalism and The Hindu Diaspora. He has also published twenty-nine edited volumes including Islam in Europe, Migration and Social Cohesion, Conceiving Cosmopolitanism and The Multicultural Backlash. He has acted as expert or consultant for numerous agencies, including the British government’s Cabinet Office and Home Office, the European Commission, the G8, the World Bank and UNESCO.
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Nicholas You,
Chairman of the World Urban Campaign Steering CommitteeTopNicholas You has over 30 years of experience advising governments, local authorities, the private and civil society sectors in the areas of public policy, strategic planning, best practice and benchmarking in sustainable urban development. He is currently Chairman of the World Urban Campaign Steering Committee and Chairman of the Assurance Group of the Urban Infrastructure Initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. His work focuses on bringing sustainable development principles, tools, practices and indicators to towns, cities and institutions through the sharing and exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience. Nicholas He is an architect and economist by training and was recently appointed as Chair of the World Future Council’s expert commission on cities and climate change.