Speakers

Professor of Sustainable Transport at Curtin University,
Perth and Frankfurt University

Jeff Kenworthy has spent 30 years in the transport and urban planning field and currently teaches courses and supervises postgraduate students in the city policy and urban sustainability fields. He is co-author (with Peter Newman, Felix Laube and others) of a number of books. These include Cities and Automobile Dependence: An International Sourcebook, a major study comparing 32 cities in Asia, North America, Australia and Europe; Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence; An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence in Cities, 1960-1990; Back On Track: Rethinking Transport Policy in Australia and New Zealand; Winning Back the Cities.

He is author and co-author of over 200 other book chapters and journal publications in the area of city policy. He has extensive experience in the areas of compact housing developments, public transport systems and sustainable transport policy and has worked as a consultant for local, state and federal governments in Australia, as well as private organisations and the World Bank. He has also acted in an advisory capacity in the Premier's Department in WA. Dr Kenworthy has lectured internationally in 23 countries and over 50 cities to universities, government agencies and community organisations on city policy issues.

He was Project Director for a large project called the Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport for the International Union (Association) of Public Transport in Brussels (UITP) for three and a half years. This study includes 100 developed and developing cities in every part of the world and includes comparative data on urban land use, transport, economics and the environment of cities.

Jeff Kenworthy received the Australian Centenary Medal from the Australian Prime Minister's Office for service to planning and sustainability in relation to public transport and urban form. Between 2007 - 2008 Professor Kenworthy was on a DAAD visiting professor fellowship teaching at the Fachhochschule - Frankfurt am Main. He has also begun the update of his global cities database with the assistance of a research grant given to him at the Fachhochschule- Frankfurt am Main from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation in New Jersey USA.

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Professor of Urban Policy at Sydney University,
New York

Edward Blakely is Honorary Professor of Urban Policy at the US Studies Centre, having previously served for two years as Executive Director of the Office of Recovery and Development Administration, the “recovery czar” for New Orleans following the devastation of hurricane Katrina. One of the world's leading scholars and practitioners of urban policy, Blakely has been Dean of the School of Urban Planning and Development at the University of Southern California and Dean of the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University in New York City. He has also held professorial appointments at the University of California Berkeley, the University of Southern California and the University of Sydney.

Professor Blakely is author of four books and more than one hundred scholarly articles as well as scores of essays and opinion pieces. His publications include Fortress America, Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities, Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice, and Rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society.

Blakely's extensive record of public service includes advising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, state and federal governments in Australia and the United States, as well as governments in Korea, Japan, Sweden, Indonesia, New Zealand and Vietnam. A Fulbright Scholar, Professor Blakely earned his BA at the University of California Riverside, an MA in Latin American history at UC Berkeley, and a PhD in Education and Management at UCLA.

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Professor of Urban Planning at Berkeley,
San Francisco

Robert Cervero works in the area of sustainable transportation policy and planning, focusing on the nexus between urban transportation and land-use systems. Besides his academic and directorship appointments at Berkeley, Professor Cervero is also a faculty affiliate of the Energy and Resources Group, the Institute of Transportation Studies, the Center for a Sustainable California, the Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport, and the Global Metropolitan Studies Center. His current research is on the intersection of infrastructure, place-making, and economic development as well as urban transformations and their impacts on travel behavior.

He is a frequent advisor and consultant on transport projects, both in the U.S. and abroad. In 2004, Professor Cervero was the first-ever recipient of the Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban Planning Research. Presently, he is Chairman of the International Association of Urban Environments and the National Advisory Board of the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

He was recently appointed to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), responsible for the chapter on spatial development for the 5th IPCC assessment. He is also the lead author of the forthcoming 2013 World Report on Sustainable Transportation for the UN-Habitat. Professor Cervero currently serves on the editorial boards of Urban Studies, Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Literature, International Journal of Sustainable Development, Journal of Transport and Land Use, Journal of Transport and Society, and Journal of Public Transportation. Over the past year, he has conducted professional training workshops in Vietnam and Indonesia through the World Bank Institute as well as for the Ministry of Transportation in Argentina, the West Australia Department of Planning, and the American Planning Association.

Professor Cervero is frequently invited to give lectures abroad, having recently keynoted at international conferences in Colombia, Australia, Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, and China.

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Professor of Sustainability,
At Curtin University, Perth

Peter Newman is an environmental scientist, author and educator based in Perth, Western Australia. He is currently Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University. Since 2008 he has been a member of Infrastructure Australia. He has a PhD degree in Chemistry and completed post doctoral studies in Environmental Science. He was closely associated with the redevelopment of Perth's rail system from 1979 to the present, which is now seen as a model for how car dependent cities can change towards more sustainable transport.

Peter Newman is best known internationally for popularizing the term 'Automobile Dependence' in the late 1980s to explain how the cities of the time, based on sprawling suburbs, were inevitably leading to the growth in automobile use.

He led an international research with colleague Jeff Kenworthy of transport practices and structures. The results were published in Cities and Automobile Dependence: An International Sourcebook, which introduced the concept of car dependence, now a feature of planning literature and policy. The two researchers later collaborated on the book Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence which was launched in the White House in 1999, as the President's Council on Sustainable Development was moving toward a more urban focus.

In Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices written with Isabella Jennings, Newman shows how city residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with ecological sustainability in mind.

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Dean of the School of Architecture and Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture,
University of Texas at Austin

Fritz Steiner is the dean of the School of Architecture and Henry M. Rockwell Chair in Architecture, University of Texas at Austin.

As a Fulbright-Hays scholar in 1980, he conducted research on ecological planning at the Wageningen University, The Netherlands. In 1998, he was the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize Fellow in Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome.

He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and an Academic Fellow of the Urban Land Institute. He is a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Steiner has worked with local, state, and federal agencies on diverse environmental plans and designs. Currently, he chairs the five-county Envision Central Texas Project, having served on its board of directors and executive committee since ECT was established in 2002.

He is also currently part of a UT team that organized an exhibit on the resilience of the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans for the 2006 Venice Biennale. In 2005, he was on a team, selected from over 1,000 entries, to be one of five finalists in the United Flight 93 National Memorial Competition in Pennsylvania.

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Department Manager,
Urban Planning & Design
Masdar City

Masara Y. Al-Ameri is Department Manager, Urban Planning & Design at Masdar City. Masara is responsible for overseeing the urban planning, landscaping, and GIS of the city’s master-plan and projects, in coordination with leading international consultants. She is also in charge of liaising with government entities for necessary city approvals and permits.

She is an experienced urban planning professional with more than 14 years’ experience in the field. Masara joined Masdar City from the Abu Dhabi Municipalities and Agriculture Department, where she held a number of roles of increasing responsibility, most recently Chief of the Urban Planning & Strategic Studies Division – Town Planning & Survey Directorate. In that role she was in charge of the urban planning of various master-planned developments in Abu Dhabi city, working in conjunction with international consultants. She also was responsible for monitoring the day-to-day progress of projects and securing necessary approvals from higher authorities. Before that, she was Assistant Director of the Building Permits Directorate in the Abu Dhabi Municipalities and Agriculture Department, responsible for all technical and administrative support to the Building Permits Director.

She has also served as a part-time lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering – Department of Architecture at the Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST) Network, which is a member of the Association of Arab Private Institutions for Higher Education and the Euro-Arab Research Network. As well, the Mediterranean University of Science and Technology, which is an AUST Network member, obtained Royal Accreditation from His Majesty Juan Carlos, King of Spain, in 2001.

Masara earned a BSc in Architectural Engineering and an MSc in Material Science and Engineering, both from UAE University, and has been awarded the Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum Scientific Research Excellency Award. She is a certifi ed Project Management Professional (PMP) from the international Project Management Institute (PMI) and has attended many professional training programmes, including ICDL and the Abu Dhabi World Leadership Summit. Recently she has enrolled in a PhD programme at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

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Architect,
NCARB
Chief Technical Officer,
LEED AP, BD +C, ESTIDAMA PQP
Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development

Thom Bohlen is Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development (MECSD). As CTO, he and the staff of MECSD currently lead over 200 projects with more than 400 million square feet through the sustainable development and certification process. He and his MECSD Team have already LEED certified 23 buildings in the U.A.E., including 2-Platinum, 10-Gold, and 11-Silver rated buildings.

Graduating from the University of Illinois with a 5 year degree from the FAA School of Architecture, Thom began his professional Architecture career during the first energy crisis in the USA in the early 70's. He was rapidly drawn to early concepts of energy and water conservation, renewable energy sources, pollution reduction, and their application to building design and construction.

Through his ensuing architectural career, Thom has practiced his art of organic architecture through the utilization of basic sustainable concepts of active and passive solar design, climate driven building orientation, shading concepts, use of indigenous materials, day lighting and view techniques that are now included in the LEED and PEARL rating systems.

He has over 40 years of professional architecture experience with medical, educational, institutional, industrial, residential and commercial projects. His professional career spans over 700 projects within 12 states of the US and 5 countries, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE; Doha, Qatar; Al Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Yemen.

Thom is an Accredited Professional (LEED AP) with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program with the United States Green Building Council, a Pearl Building and Community Qualified Professional with Estidama, and is a member of the Green Business Council, Architect's Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility, and the Emirates Wildlife Society of the World Wildlife Fund (EWS-WWF). Thom is also active on many sustainable organization internet blogs.

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Founding Partner,
Chalabi Architekten & Partner ZT GmbH

Talik Chalabi is the founding partner of Chalabi Architects & Partner ZT GmbH, leading Austrian architectural and urban planning company. Fluent in English, French, German and Arabic, Talik is a graduate of Harvard University where he successfully completed a Master’s degree in design studies.

Since 1992 Talik in partnership with his brother Jaafar has built an extremely successful career in the architectural sector, winning numerous awards from across the globe. The firm is renowned for her expertise that spans all areas from master planning and landscape, traffic and infrastructure, hospitality, private residences, commercial office buildings and healthcare.

Talik is a regular on the lecture circuit where he has been sharing his knowledge since 1997 with a wide range of universities in Vienna.

Most recently Chalabi Architects and Partner were awarded first prize for the Sheik Zayed Desert Learning Centre – Al Ain, UAE. Prior to this he received the King Fahad award of Architecture and was a finalist for the Austrian Building Prize.

Talik is a member of various professional bodies, including: the World Society of Ekistics and the Austrian Chamber of Architects and Engineers.

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Director of Planning and Development,
Rail Agency
Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)
Dubai, UAE

Abdul Redha Abu Al Hassan is Director of Planning and Development Department , Rail Agency of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). A vibrant, enthusiastic and approachable personality with superior managerial and organizational skills, he is one of the key personnel behind the prestigious Metro project in Dubai.

Al Hassan graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of UAE in 1986. He possesses more than 25 years of experience in planning and implementing major government projects and can list more than a dozen accolades in his illustrious career, including a 2011 Guinness World Record for Dubai Metro as the longest driverless metro line in the world and Holder of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Medal of honor in appreciation of his Contribution in completion of Dubai Metro ,which was considered as the best Project accomplished by a Government sector.

A member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Society of Engineering, the Architectural Heritage Society and the International Who is Who Historical Society Organization, Al Hassan is a leading name in the transport and urban planning sector in the UAE.

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Architect and Urban Planner,
Abu Dhabi Department of Transport
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dilip Karpoor is an architect and urban planner with over 12 years international experience in the fields of sustainable development, transportation, urban design and place-making. Working with the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport since 2009, he has been responsible for the development of the Abu Dhabi Walking and Cycling Master Plan, the overarching strategy for non-motorized travel in the Emirate in support of the vision for the sustainable future of Abu Dhabi. He holds a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the Ohio State University and certificate by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

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Principal Transportation Planner,
Amman Institute for Urban Development

Bilal Farhan has been involved in the development of the multi-modal transportation plan (e.g. future road network, future public transportation network, etc.) to support the growth plans, master plans and / or community / downtown plans for major urban and rural areas in Jordan such as Greater Amman Area, Greater Irbid Area, and Shefa Balqa Area. This included, but not limited to the following: participating in public forums, workshops, focus groups and advisory groups; collecting data / information about the urban area, the planned transportation projects and future development projects; providing situation analysis; identifying key development issues; providing information for decision makers; and supporting / interacting with the other urban planning components. Bilal also worked on GIS database development for planning projects. This included GIS data collection, organization, and validation for various layers of information including infrastructure / transportation, satellite images, communal facilities, natural heritage, and cultural heritage. He contributed to capacity building efforts by sharing the transportation planning methodology through giving presentations in local and international conferences and providing training for planners from neighboring Arab countries.

Bilal has experience in transportation planning, engineering, location modeling, spatial data processing, GIS analysis, research, and teaching. He has undertaken research related to GIS applications in transportation planning, and his work has been published in refereed journals. Bilal has a Ph.D. and Master’s degrees with focus on Geographic Information Systems and Transportation Planning from Ohio State University. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan.

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Professor, Ph.D., Dr.techn. Former Technical Director in the city of Copenhagen

Jens Rørbech is a Senior Consultant in Traffic Planning and Management and Professor at the Technical University of Denmark, a position he has held since 1999. Jens has been Chief Engineer for the Danish State Road Administration and has been Technical Director for the City of Copenhagen for the past 13 years.

With experience spanning the entire urban planning and transport sector, Jens holds an M.Sc in civil engineering, a PhD. and a Dr.techn. as well as his professorship.

Over the years, Jens has won numerous awards for his work in the realm of transportation and has been commended by leading industry bodies from across the globe.

To date Jens has published over 100 features and papers in scientific journals, magazines and newspapers and is a regular speaker on the lecture circuit. Jens' two thesis', "The multi-lane traffic Flow Process" and "Capacity and level of service conditions on Danish two-lane Highways" received critical acclaim.

Jens is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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Gulf Transport Leader
Arup

Neil Walmsley is an Associate Director at Arup, based in UAE. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer (CEng MICE) and holds Masters Degrees in both Civil Engineering and Transport Planning. He joined Arup in 1997 in UK and has been in UAE since 2005.

As Gulf Transport Leader, Neil leads Arup's work in the Transport sector in the region. His CV includes a broad range of projects across the transport and development sector including development master plans, multi modal transport studies, public transport planning, pedestrian and cycle planning, traffic engineering, interchange design and commercial business case evaluation.

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