Topic: Smart Cities

Nicolas J.A. Buchoud

Nicolas J.A. Buchoud is the co-founder and President of the Grand Paris Alliance for Metropolitan Development (Cercle Grand Paris de l’Investissement Durable), an awarded and independent think tank established in 2011 at the crossroads of inclusion, large scale investment projects and environmental transformations.

Nicolas is a member of the T20, the think tank engagement group of the G20, and the co-chair of the T20 task force on infrastructure investment and financing in 2019 and 2020.

He is also advising over a dozen academic, civic and CSR initiatives on urban and global transitions, among them the Trans Siberian Scientific Way (TSSW) in Siberia or the World Conference on Creative Economy (WCCE) successfully launched by Indonesia.

A trusted and creative metropolitan entrepreneur and policymaker, Nicolas leads the urban R&D and strategic advisory company Renaissance Urbaine he started in 2006 with Dr. Lan-Phuong Phan.

Specialized in multilateral negotiation and the management of complex science to policy interface in the field of sustainable development, he has a track record of successful achievements across Europe and globally from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

Nicolas has served over ten years in the public sector, as senior advisor to the President of Paris Ile de France Region for regional and strategic planning, deputy chief of staff for a city-mayor, expert for the French Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and as the director of a national urban regeneration project in the greater Paris metro area.

He regularly edits books, articles, reviews and reports on contemporary urban issues since the early 2000’s such as Strategic City / La Ville stratégique (2008). The Smart Cities We Need Manifest he released in 2016 has been adapted in Russian and in Arabic as well as in German, with a Hindi version to be completed in 2020.

Nicolas is a corresponding member of the Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau und Landesplanung (DASL) since 2007 and he has contributed to the development of European and global professional urban networks and with the UN across the globe.

He is an alumnus from Sciences Po Paris in public law and public administration (SP, 99), an alumnus from Sciences Po Paris school for urban affairs, and he holds a Master summa cum laude from Paris La Sorbonne university in 17th Century Chinese history.

Boyd Cohen

Boyd Cohen, Ph.D., LEED AP, is an urban and climate strategist focused on researching, teaching and outreach in the areas of urban innovation and entrepreneurship and smart cities.  Along with Hunter Lovins, Boyd released Climate Capitalism in 2011.  Boyd is releasing his next book: The Emergence of the Urban Entrepreneur in May 2016 (Praeger) with a foreward by Richard Florida.  This book reflects his research over the past several years on the role of cities in stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship and the emergence of entrepreneurs who shape and are shaped by their urban environments. Dr. Cohen is the lead guest editor for a special issue of California Management Review on Smart Cities, Open Innovation and the Collaborative Economy.

Boyd developed the Smart Cities Wheel as a framework for establishing and implementing smart city strategies and for benchmarking cities around the globe.  It has been translated into Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew and Dutch among other languages.

After finishing a three-year stint at Accenture, Boyd obtained his Ph.D. in strategy and entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado (2001).  Boyd is a professor, researcher and consultant in the entrepreneurship, sustainability and smart and sharing cities arena.  Boyd has been an advisor to green developments such as the Vancouver Athlete’s Village and cities such as Buenos Aires and Beaverton, Oregon. Boyd has co-founded numerous green startups in real estate, ICT and carbon origination.  Boyd is bi-lingual (English and Spanish) having taught MBA courses in sustainability at the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain), INCAE (Costa Rica), Universidad de San Andres (Argentina) and la Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile).

Boyd has published numerous academic articles at the intersection of entrepreneurship/innovation, sustainability and cities and is a regular contributor to Fast Company and Shareable. He is currently a professor at EADA Business School and Universitat de Vic and the co-founder of the Sharing Accelerator Barcelona dedicated to accelerating responsible sharing economy startups.

Pablo Sanchez Chillon

Pablo Sánchez Chillón, Lawyer, Political Scientist, Researcher and Strategic Advisor on Urban Innovation, Policy Making and Smart Cities. Co-founder and CEO of Sánchez Chillón Abogados and Eolex Citylab, two teams of strategists and social innovators, helping private and public stakeholders to ideate, develop and disseminate innovative Smart City projects. Pablo is Strategy and Public Affairs Advisor and Urban Counselor for Cities, Mayors and Institutions. He is a renowned consultant on Urban Diplomacy and City-branding, and CEO (2015) of Foro Global Alicante, ‘A City in Motion’ a digital/real network of Excellence committed to support and disseminate the innovative City-brand of Alicante (ES) by creating a Public-Private Platform for Urban Diplomacy.

Pablo has a Law Degree in ICADE (Madrid, 1997), and has completed Post-graduate Studies on Urban Public Affairs (PDAP – ICADE Madrid, 2014), Urban Planning (FUNDESEM BUSINESS SCHOOL, 2013) & Public Management (FUNDESEM, 2013). Pablo will get his Degree in Political Science in 2015 (June, expected).

Pablo has been invited Lecturer at the Master of Advanced Tools for Sustainable Planning Università degli Studi di Sassari (IT), Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (ES) & Pontificia Universidad Católica Puerto Rico (PR). He has recently joined EIC, International School of Communications & Public Affairs (Madrid) and ICEM ESIC University as a Faculty member.

In 2014, Pablo was appointed CEO of Elche Smart City Project (Spain) and member of the Steering Committee of the Smart City Exhibition Bolonia (Italy 2012-today), My Neighbourhood Project (Portugal, 2013- Today)) y Executive Advisor for the Corredor Digital Santurce Project/ Smart City (San Juan de Puerto Rico, 2013-Today) and for the EU Project UrbanIxD. (2013-2014).

In 2016, Paul has joined Both EIC, International School of Communications & Public Affairs (Madrid) and ICEMD- ESIC (Institute for the Digital Economy) (Madrid) as a Faculty member. I is an active member of the Steering Committee of the Smart City Exhibition Bologna (Italy), Lecturer at the Master on Design of People Centered Smart Cities, (Univ. Roma Tor Vergata ) and Advisor of the EU Project UrbanIxD and "My Neighbourhood Project".

With a solid experience as International Keynoter on Urban Innovation, Strategy and Smart City matters, from 2013, Pablo co-organizes the Smart City Congress “Thinking Capitals”, the regional event in Valencia (ES) about the Smart City paradigm and the role of Digizens, new Digital Citizens (term coined by Pablo).
Pablo is Editor of the influential blog URBAN 360º on Urban Innovation, Digital Cities & Urban Diplomacy and guest editor of the International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence and contributes to the Tech Magazine of Le Monde – IBM/ Planète Plus Intelligent, and UCLG (The Global Network of Cities, Local & Regional Governments) and World Bank City Sense.

Pablo is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian & Catalan.