Greg Clark (urbanist)

Greg Clark CBE, an urbanist, is an author, global advisor, chairman and Non-Executive Director. Clark has advised more than 100 cities, 20 national governments and a wide array of bodies including the OECD, Brookings Institution, the World Bank and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) on strategies for city development and investment. He also advises global investors and corporate service companies on how to align with city leaders.

Clark was born in Wimbledon, London on 13 April 1962 and was educated at Wimbledon College, a Roman Catholic Jesuit state school. Between 1981-82, he spent time volunteering in Mexico City and New York, which was to ignite his interest in the world’s biggest cities. He went on to Cambridge University, where he read Education and Social and Political Science and was JCR President. He joined the Local Economy Policy Unit (LEPU) (at London South Bank University) from 1988 to 1991 as a research fellow in London economic development.

Between 1994 and 1996, Clark was selected as a Harkness Fellow based at Columbia University in New York City, where he read Globalisation and City and Regional Planning. From 1996 to 1998 Clark worked as a research scholar in city economic development at the London School of Economics.

Clark married Julia Franks in 1997. They have two sons.

Clark holds both UK and Irish citizenship.

• In October 2016, Clark was awarded a Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences
• In 2016, Clark was awarded the Freedom of the City of London
• In 2016, Clark was appointed Global Fellow at LSE Cities, The London School of Economics
• In 2015, Clark was awarded CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to city and regional economic development.
• In 2015, Clark was appointed Honorary Ambassador to the City of Brisbane.
• In 2014, Clark was appointed Honorary and Visiting Professor at UCL, and invited to co-chair the advisory board of the City Leadership Initiative.
• In 2013, Clark was appointed Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University (Glasgow) and a member of the Board of the International Public Policy Institute.
• In 2012, Clark appointed Global Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
• In 2011, Clark was awarded the commission to write the Honor Chapman Report, created to remember Honor Chapman who died in 2009. Clark’s report on London’s development as a world city since 1991 was published in 2012 and his subsequent book on London’s past 25 years was published by Wiley Blackwell in December 2014.
• 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.
• In 2006, Clark was appointed Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City University, City of London.
• In 1995, Greg Clark was awarded a Harkness Fellowshipby the Commonwealth Fund of New York, and was based at Columbia University in New York City as a Visiting Scholar.

• https://www.acss.org.uk/news/eighty-four-leading-social-scientists-conferred-fellows-academy-social-sciences/
• "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015. 
• "Civic program". Brisbane.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 2016-07-01. 
• "The Honor Chapman Report". The Honor Chapman Report. Retrieved 2014-01-26. 
• "Wiley: The Making of a World City: London 1991 to 2021 - Greg Clark". Eu.wiley.com. Retrieved 2016-07-01. 
• "22@ Barcelona - El districte de la innovació". 22barcelona.com. 2005-03-16. Retrieved 2014-01-26. 
• "Urban Land Institute Team Biographies". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2016-07-01. 

Clark is a researcher/writer, advisor and non-executive director/chairman. His roles include:

• Chairman, The Business of Cities Ltd
• Visiting Professor and co-Chairman of Advisory Board, City Leadership Initiative, University College London.
• Senior Fellow, Urban Land Institute (ULI), Europe, Middle East, Africa and India.
• Global Fellow, Metropolitan Programme and Global Cities Initiative, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC.

He also holds roles as a non-executive including:

• Board Member, Transport for London
• Board Member, London Economic Action Partnership
• Chairman, Jones Lang La Salle Cities Research Centre
• Strategic Advisor, OECD Local Economy Programme, Paris.
• Board Member and Trustee, Centre for Cities

• "The Team". Thebusinessofcities.com. Retrieved 2016-07-01. 
• "UCL City Leadership Initiative - London". UCL City Leadership Initiative - London. 
• Greg Clark. "Greg Clark | Brookings Institution". Brookings.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-26. 
• https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/corporate-governance/board-members
• https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-announces-new-board-to-boost-economic-growth
• "JLL Cities Research Center". JLL. Retrieved 1 July 2016. 
• "LEED Programme (Local Economic and Employment Development) - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development". Oecd.org. Retrieved 2014-01-26. 

From 1986-90 Clark’s career began to focus on city economies and employment, including roles at the British Refugee Council, The London Borough of Lambeth, and the Local Economy Policy Unit (South Bank University). In 1995, Clark was selected as a Harkness Fellow and was based at Columbia University in New York City, where he investigated City & Regional Planning and Metropolitan Governance. 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 and Canadian Cities.

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. Between 1990 and 2006 Clark held leadership roles in London in the sphere of urban economic development including: International Programmes Director at the London Docklands Development Corporation (1990–94), Managing Director, Economic Development at Greater London Enterprise, & Chief Executive of the London Enterprise Agency ‘One London’ (1994-2001); Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, London Development Agency (2001–04) and Lead Advisor on City and Regional Economic Development, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2004–10).

Since 2004 Clark has held a portfolio of advisory roles with global organisations and institutions, and has undertaken reviews of more than 100 cities around the world, chiefly for the OECD, Brookings Institution, World Bank and Urban Land Institute. He has directed comparative studies and assessments of London and New York City, 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 New York Regional Plan 2017,Sao Paulo 2040 Strategic Plan. He has been International Advisor on Strategic Planning in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Auckland and Barcelona. He has also been chairman of the International Advisory Committee on Urban Development in Moscow, and chairman of the Advisory Board for Oslo Regional Brand and chairman of the Vienna Tourism Strategy Advisory Board.

He has advised on governance reforms in London, Sydney, Toronto, Barcelona, Auckland, Sao Paulo, Milan, and Turin. He has advised on national policies for cities in UK, Ireland, Canada, China, India, Colombia, Sri Lanka, South Africa¸ New Zealand, Italy, Slovakia, and Latvia. He has advised on Development Agencies in London, Toronto, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Bogota, and Madrid. Clark has advised global companies on their engagement with cities including JLL, JP Morgan, AirBnB, Siemens, BlackRock, Buro Happold, PWC and Linklaters. He was previously a Commissioner on the UK City Growth Commission (2012 to 2014), Chairman of British BIDs (2010 to 2014), a Commissioner on the West End Commission (2012-2013) and a member of the Lead Expert Group of the UK Future of Cities Foresight Project (2013 to 2016). He has made a continuing contribution to leadership in Greater London, where his roles have included being a member of the board of Transport for London (since 2016),Member of the London LEP Board (2013 to 2016),Chairman of the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium] (2012 to 2016). He was also a member of the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission (2015/16) and the West Anglia Task Force . He was a member of the Promote London Council (2009/2011).

Clark is also chairman and moderator of summits and gatherings notably the World Cities Summit Mayors' Forum (each year since 2011), Asia Pacific Cities Summit Mayors Forum (2011, 2013), and the Moscow Urban Forum. He has led more than 100 summits and events for JP Morgan, Grosvenor, ICSC, INREV, ANREV, IEDC, ULI, OECD, World Bank, UN, The FT, The EIB, MIPIM, LSE, Brookings Institution, and The EU Council.

He has written on cities and urban investment practices, publishing ten books and numerous articles.

Books

• The Short History of Global Cities, September 2016, Brookings Institute Press
• The Making of a World City: London 1991 to 2021 December 2014, Wiley
• Local Economic Leadership June 2015, OECD LEED (with Moir, E, Moonen, T and Mountford, D)
• Delivering Local Development: New Growth and Investment Strategies Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), 2013, OECD Publishing. (with Moonen, T)
• Investment Strategies and Financial Tools for Local Development, 2007, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing. (with Mountford, D) (eds.)
• Organising Local Economic Development: The Role of Development Agencies and Companies, 2010 Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing. (with Huxley, J and Mountford, D)
• Recession, Recovery, and Reinvestment: the Role of Local Economic Leadership in a Global Crisis, 2008, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.
• Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events, 2008, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing.

Forthcoming

• The Business of Cities, (Summer 2017), Routledge
• World Cities and Nations States, (November 2016) Wiley

Reports and Papers

• (with Moir, E) Density: Drivers, Dividends and Debates June 2015, ULI
• (with Moir, E and Moonen, T) Underpowered Cities, November 2014, LSE Cities
• (with Moir, E) The Business of Cities September 2014, UK Government (Foresight Future of Cities Project)
• (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) 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.
• (with Moonen, T) Hong Kong: A Globally Fluent Metropolitan City (A case study for the Global Cities Initiative) June 2014, Brookings.
• (with Moir, E and Moonen, T) What are Future Cities? Origins, Meanings and Uses. June 2014, Government Office for Science
• (with Moir, E and Moonen, T) The Future of Cities: What is the Global Agenda? November 2014, UK Government Office for Science
• (with Moonen, T) Munich: A Globally Fluent Metropolitan Economy (A case study for the Global Cities Initiative) November 2014, Brookings.
• (with Moonen, T) Mumbai: India's Global City (A case study for the Global Cities Initiative) December 2014, Brookings.
• (with Moonen, T) World Cities and Nation States: Promoting A New Deal for the 21st Century January 2015, Moscow Urban Forum
• (with Moonen, T) Technology, Real Estate, and the Innovation Economy September 2015, ULI
• (with Moonen, T) The Density Dividend: Solutions for Growing and Shrinking Cities October 2015, ULI
• (with Moonen, T and Couturier, J) Globalisation and Competition: The New World of Cities November 2015, JLL
• (with Moonen T, Moir E and Couturier J) Brussels and Antwerp: Pathways to a Competitive Future May 2016, ULI
• (with Moonen, T and Couturier J) Benchmarking the Future World of Cities, May 2016, JLL
• (with Moonen, T) Europe’s Cities in a Global Economy. 2013, Brookings JPMorganChase.
• (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 Moonen, T) British Cities in a Global System: What can we offer International Learning 2010, The Work Foundation
• (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 Huxley, J) Closing the Investment Gap in Europe’s Cities, 2009, ULI
• Towards OpenCities, 2008, British Council
• The State of EU Urban Development, 2008, ULI
• The Urban Investment White Paper, 2009, ULI
• Internationalisation of OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• Leadership and Governance on OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• Managing Diversity in OpenCities, 2010, British Council
• Public Land and Urban Investment, 2010, ULI