Patrick Lamson-Hall is a co-founder and the Principal Urban Planner at Fitted Projects, a leading firm in the planning of new cities and urban special economic zones. As a working planner, he has developed new city projects and urban plans in over thirty cities in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America, including ZEDE Morazan in Honduras. He is an affiliated scholar at the New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management. He has collaborated on urban planning projects with the Cities Alliance, the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Associates, UN-Habitat, and the World Bank. As a researcher, his projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation. He is a globally recognized expert on urban growth and urban density and has developed new planning techniques for low-income cities experiencing rapid growth. He is an author of the Atlas of Urban Expansion: 2016 Edition and frequently contributes academic papers to leading journals. He holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and is currently a PhD candidate in Public Administration.

Nuria is an experienced urban designer and construction manager with an architectural background. Proficient in managing and designing a diverse range of projects, from small-scale renovations to expansive 4,000ha new city community plans across global regions including the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Europe. Skilled in engaging and leading multi-disciplinary teams at all stages of project conception and implementation, she showcases a keen sense of scale and strategic vision. Her project management experience covers the oversight of project portfolios exceeding $60 million, primarily focused on residential and commercial real estate construction and project execution. Nuria is passionate about delivering flexible, market-centric urban plans and implementing cost-effective designs within constrained budgets

Kurtis Lockhart is the Executive Director of the Charter Cities Institute and a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Oxford. His research examines the effect of institutional reforms on public goods provision with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. At Oxford, he’s taught both quantitative methods and African politics. In the field, he has previously worked as a Research Manager for the International Growth Centre (IGC), for Warc Africa (both in Sierra Leone), and for the ELIMU Impact Evaluation Center in Kenya where he managed the implementation of several randomized control trials across many different sectors (health insurance, rural electrification, tax administration, and legal aid).

Kurtis has also completed consulting projects with both Oxford Development Consultancy and Warc Africa. He holds an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics where he graduated top of his class, as well as a BA in Economics and Development Studies (First Class Honors) from McGill University.

Heba is an urban planner, researcher, and developer. Her research interests lie in human settlements, culture, heritage, community, and urban development. She has a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Alexandria University and a master’s degree in Urban Development from the Technical University of Berlin. She has worked on a variety of urban development and research projects with regional and international organizations. Originally from Egypt, Heba joined the Charter Cities Institute as a member of the Atlas Corps Fellowship.

Astrid is an Austrian-Ugandan urban economist, based in Hong Kong, with over 15 years of experience, working across research and practice, supporting cities around strategy generally and specifically to strengthen their financial systems, with a focus on unleashing new opportunities for sub-national financing. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Cities, University of Toronto, an Extraordinary Lecturer at the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria, and a Research Associate at ODI and the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. In addition, Astrid has worked extensively with city governments across Africa and Asia in her diverse roles, including previously as an urban economist with the African Development Bank and Policy Director at the International Growth Centre. She holds an MSc in Public Financial Management from the SOAS in London and an MA in International Economics and International Development from Johns Hopkins University. In 2016, she was nominated by the University of Cape Town as one of Africa’s Young Leaders and in 2020 she received Johns Hopkins University’s Outstanding Recent Graduate Award, for her work on urbanization.

Jeremy Gorelick is a development economist with a geographic focus on the global South and a passion for creatively solving complicated financial dilemmas. His diverse experiences have shaped his unique career path, including consultancies and partnerships with governmental and intergovernmental organizations in the developing world, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development (United Kingdom), the French Development Agency, and other prominent organizations. He also held leadership roles with European banks on Wall Street, focusing on emerging markets, including BNP Paribas and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. In addition, he was involved in private real estate development in the greater New York metropolitan area, including affordable housing communities, mixed-use residential/commercial communities, and commercial office parks. He had teaching responsibilities at Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, and the State University of New York, and has also taken on community leadership roles in the Sullivan County Catskills, including chairmanship of the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce and local political appointments. Finally, he has taken leadership roles in globally-focused volunteer organizations, including treasurership with Habitat for Humanity and the Magic Penny, and executive roles with the Global Women’s Association against Nuclear Testing and the local chapter of the Rotary Foundation

Victoria Delbridge is the Head of the International Growth Centre’s Cities that Work initiative. She is working with Paul Collier, Ed Glaeser, Astrid Haas and Tony Venables, to develop a network of economists, urban planning practitioners and policymakers to translate economic research into clear urban policy guidance. Victoria holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford, and a BSc in Environmental and Geographical Science and Economics from the University of Cape Town. Prior to her Masters at Oxford, Victoria was an economist at the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism in South Africa. Her current research areas include urban land use planning, public infrastructure and service provision, urban employment, municipal finance and city-level data strategies.

Professor Matthew McCartney spent twenty years as an academic at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London (2000-2011), and at the University of Oxford (2011-21). He has been a visiting Professor at Universities in China, Pakistan, India, Japan, South Korea, Poland, and Belgium. He is a development economist by background with a teaching and research specialization in the economic development of India and Pakistan after 1947. He has published, supervised, and taught on economic issues relating to industrialization, technology, trade, the role of the state, investment and economic growth, and human development issues relating to nutrition, employment, education, poverty, and inequality. He has also worked for the World Bank, USAID, EU, and UNDP in Botswana, Georgia, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Bosnia, and Zambia.

He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Economics from SOAS, University of London. His latest book is the outcome of two years of research based in China and Pakistan ‘The Dragon from the Mountains: The CPEC from Kashgar to Gwadar’ and was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021.