Bio
Over the past 20 years I have led urban innovation, economic development and government innovation projects in over 40 countries. I trained as an architect and urbanist in London, am a fellow at New America in the Public Interest Technologies group, an Ashoka Fellow and globally recognized expert on urban and local government innovation. In 2011, I founded Citymart, an organization that transformed expectations and practices of public procurement by reliably introducing civic engagement, diversity, problem-solving and innovation into a bureaucratic process that deploys over $1 trillion into US communities. To-date, Citymart has implemented innovative procurement practices in 135 cities in 35 countries that led to better community outcomes and brought 30,000 creative small and disadvantaged businesses to bid for government contracts. Prior to Citymart I pioneered the development of inclusive urban innovation districts and civic service innovation in cities through co-founding Living Labs Global in 2003, a non-profit network of urban innovation labs and Interlace-Invent in 2001, a consulting and service company advising governments, investors and universities on strategies for economic development, urban investment and innovative partnerships in Europe and Asia. In my early career I co-led the innovation efforts in construction & services companies in the UK and researched problem-solving in urban conflict areas.