Greg Clark (urbanist)

Greg Clark

Greg Clark (born 13 April 1962) is an advisor and mentor to leadership groups in global cities and regions, global companies and inter-governmental organisations. He is also a speaker, writer and moderator.^[1] Clark’s work centres on issues such as city economic strategy, city leadership, openness and migration, urban investment, long-term strategic planning and city branding.^[2][3]

Clark has advised a wide array of bodies including the OECD, Brookings Institution, the World Bank, Urban Land Institute (ULI), the EIB, and the LSE. He has also been a strategy adviser to more than 30 cities on five continents^[4] including Singapore, London, New York, Toronto, Barcelona, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Vienna, Oslo, Auckland, Glasgow, Turin and Moscow.^[5]

Early Life and Education

Greg Clark was born in Wimbledon, London on 13 April 1962. Clark was educated at Wimbledon College and Cambridge University, where he read Education and Social and Political Science, was JCR President and acted in many productions and sketch shows. Between 1981 and 1982 Clark spent time volunteering in Mexico City and New York, which was to ignite his interest in the world’s biggest cities.

Career

Greg Clark chairs The Mayor and Leaders Forum, Cabot House, Canary Wharf, 29 June 2006

From 1986 to 1990 Clark’s career began to focus on local economies and employment, including roles at the British Refugee Council, The London Borough of Lambeth, and The Local Economy Policy Unit.

In 1995, Clark was selected as a Harkness Fellow and was based at Columbia University in New York City, where he studied City and Regional Planning. He spent much of 18 months of his Fellowship as a guest of the US Federal Government, assessing city and regional economic development in 12 US Cities.^[3]

Clark returned to London in 1997, and took up a two year part-time role as a research scholar in City and Regional Economics at the London School of Economics. Since 2004 he has been a visiting professor at the Cass Business School, City University, London.

Between 1990 and 2006 Clark held a variety of leadership roles in London in the sphere of urban economic development including: International Programmes Director at the London Docklands Development Corporation (1990 to 1994), Managing Director, Economic Development at Greater London Enterprise, & Chief Executive of the London Enterprise Agency ‘One London’ (1994 to 2001); Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, London Development Agency (2001 to 2004) and (part-time) Lead Advisor on City and Regional Development, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004 to 2010).

Since 2004 Clark has developed a portfolio of advisory roles with global organisations and institutions, and has undertaken reviews of more than 100 cities around the world,^[3] chiefly for the OECD and World Bank. He has directed comparative studies and assessments of London and New York, British and Spanish cities, UK and Canadian Cities, and UK and Chinese Cities. His international roles have included chairman of the International Advisory Committee for the Sao Paulo 2040 Strategic Plan, International Advisor on Strategic Planning in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Cape Town, and International Advisor on the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan.^[6] Clark is currently co-chair of the World Cities Advisory Committee for the 4th New York Regional Plan,^[7] a member of the International Advisory Board for Vienna 2020,^[8] and a member of the Scientific Committee for the new Strategic Plan of Turin.^[9]

Clark is also an experienced chairman and moderator of summits and gatherings notably the World Cities Summit (2011, 2012, and 2013), Asia Pacific Cities Summit Mayors Forum (2011, 2013),^[10] and MIPIM Mayors' Think Tank (2011, 2012).^[11][12] He has been leader of numerous projects on city leadership.^[13]

Greg Clark has written extensively on cities and urban development practices, publishing ten books to date and numerous articles. He is also founder and CEO of an independent senior advisory practice, The Business of Cities Ltd, which provides leadership, mentoring and advocacy on metropolitan development and investment to global clients in 5 continents.

More recently he has also been a commissioner on the West End Commission;^[14] and member of the Mayor of London’s Promote London Council.^[5]

Recognition

• In 1994, Greg Clark was awarded a Harkness Fellowship.
• In 2010, The City of Barcelona awarded him the John Shield’s Prize, an award given once a year to the international person outside Barcelona that has done most to promote the city.^[15]
• In 2011, he was awarded the commission to write the Honor Chapman Report, created to remember Honor Chapman who died in 2009.^[16] Clark’s report on London’s development as a world city since 1991 is now being prepared for publication by Wiley in 2014.

Current Roles

Greg Clark maintains a wide portfolio of collaborative activities that currently holds the following positions:

• Chairman, OECD Forum on Local Development Agencies and Investment Strategies,^[17] Paris.
• Senior Fellow, Urban Land Institute (ULI),^[4] Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.
• Global Fellow, Metropolitan Programme, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC.^[18]
• Co-chairman, New York Metropolitan Global Advisory Board
• World Bank Advisor on Metropolitan Strategy.^[2]
• Member, Lead Expert Group, UK Government Office for Science, Future of Cities Foresight Project.
• Commissioner, Cities Growth Commission, Royal Society of Arts.^[19]
• Member, UK Gov Smart Cities Forum
• Board Member, London Enterprise Partnership (LEP)^[20] and London Infrastructure Group
• Chairman, London Stansted Cambridge Consortium.^[21]
• Board of Directors, Centre for Cities.^[22]
• Visiting Professor, Cities and Globalisation, Cass Business School,^[23] City University London.
• Visiting Professor and co-Chairman of Advisory Board, City Leadership Initiative, University College London.^[24]
• Visiting Professor, Institute for Public Policy, Strathclyde University, Glasgow.
• Member, Future of Cities Advisory Board, Oxford University.^[25]
• CEO and Founder, The Business of Cities Ltd

Personal life

Clark is married to Julia Franks, a psychotherapist. They have two sons and live in North London. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Publications

• (with Moonen, T) British Cities in a Global System: What can we offer International Learning 2010, The Work Foundation
• (with Moonen, T) The Business of Cities 2013: What do 150 city indexes and benchmarking studies tell us about the urban world in 2013, 2013, Jones Lang La Salle
• (with Mountford, D) (eds.)Investment Strategies and Financial Tools for Local Development, 2007, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.
• Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events, 2008, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.
• Recession, Recovery, and Reinvestment: the Role of Local Economic Leadership in a Global Crisis, 2008, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.
• (with Huxley, J and Mountford, D) Organising Local Economic Development: The Role of Development Agencies and Companies, 2010 Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.
• (with Moonen, T) Delivering Local Development: New Growth and Investment Strategies Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), 2013, OECD Publishing.
• Leadership of Local Economic Development (forthcoming)
• Towards OpenCities, 2008, British Council
• Internationalisation of OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• Leadership and Governance on OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• Managing Diversity in OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• The State of EU Urban Development, 2008, ULI
• (with Huxley, J) Closing the Investment Gap in Europe’s Cities, 2009, ULI
• The Urban Investment White Paper, 2009, ULI
• Public Land and Urban Investment, 2010, ULI
• (with Evans, G & Nemecek, S) City Branding and Urban Investment, 2011, ULI
• (with Evans, G & Nemecek, S) The Urban Investment Opportunities of Global Events, 2010, ULI
• (with McDearman, B and Parilla, J) Ten Traits of Globally Fluent Metro Areas (US Version), June 2013, Brookings.
• (with Moonen, T) Ten Traits of Metropolitan Global Fluency (Int’l Version) Oct 2013, Brookings.
• (with Moonen, T) Europe’s Cities in a Global Economy. 2013, Brookings JPMorganChase.
• (with Moonen, T) Urban Innovation and Investment: the Role of International Financial Institutions and Development Banks, 2014, Future Cities Catapult
• (with Rt Hon Greg Clark MP) Nations and the Wealth of Cities: A New Phase in Public Policy 2014, Centre for London.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greg Clark (urbanist).

• Greg Clark's Twitter Account
• Official Biography produced for Glasgow City Economy Conference
• Radio Interview with Greg Clark: Cape Talk Radio Show July 2013 'Making Cities Work'
• Panel Discussion featuring Greg Clark at Global Cities Initiative, Denver Forum, June 2013
• Interview with Greg Clark: Auckland Rugby World Cup as a catalyst for growth
• Greg Clark Interview: Rethinking Cities
• OPENcities: Conversation with Greg Clark on openness in Cities of Migration
• Interview with Greg Clark on City Branding
• Greg Clark leads closing plenary of London Urban Age Conference. Also at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIhu0oBLXZg
• Greg Clark and city leaders speaking at the London Conference 2013 (Centre for London and JP Morgan Chase)
• Greg Clark speaks at Enabling Future Auckland Symposium, February 2014 (Committee for Auckland)
• Greg Clark speaks at 'One Step Ahead' Series on Competitiveness in Asia - Maintaining Innovation for Economic Growth, May 2014 (JP Morgan Asia Society)