Advisory Panel

Paul is Chair of Smart Cities World’s Advisory Board. He has more than 20 years’ international experience in the B2B Technology Media Telecom sector, including being CMO of TM Forum and SunGard Financial Systems. Paul was a founder of the multi-award-winning Bristol Is Open smart city project in 2014 and created the widely endorsed City as a Platform Manifesto a couple of years later. He went on to advise the UK Government on the design of its £200m 5G Testbeds & Trials Programme.

Today he is a senior advisor to UK5G and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab. He has lived in London, Hong Kong and Geneva, and worked extensively in America. These days he enjoys living with his family in rebel-city Bristol, England.

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At GRCN, Lauren works on urban resilience, sustainable finance, climate risk, stakeholder engagement, and urbanization trends.

Before joining GRCN, Lauren led the Asian Development Bank’s first ever climate change investment plan before moving to the ADB’s Vietnam Office to mainstream climate risks and opportunities in the country’s US$7 billion portfolio.

Previous to the ADB, she led knowledge management efforts for two USAID programs: the Eco-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program in China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam; and the Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

She has published work on biofuels, climate change, infant mortality and HIV/AIDS. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Tufts University and a Master of Science in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics.

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Okan has nearly 25 years of experience in management consulting in various industries and countries. He has worked in A.T. Kearney global management consulting firm before he joined Dubai Government in 2002. He has worked in Dubai eGovernment, Dubai Smart Government, and more recently in Smart Dubai as the Strategic Planning Advisor after its establishment. His responsibilities over the years included Strategic Planning, Policy Making and Global Thought Leadership.

He was the Co-Chair of Enhancing Innovation and Participation Working Group in United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) joint global initiative supported by 17 UN agencies. This working group addressed Smart Governance, Smart Economy and Smart People aspects in smart cities. Additionally, he has led two deliverables globally in U4SSC; namely “Guidelines on Strategies for Circular Cities” and “City Science Application Framework”. Currently, he is leading “Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in Cities” thematic group.

He was the Co-Chair of “Data Economy Impact, Commercialization and Monetization” Working Group in ITU Focus Group on Data Processing and Management. He is also the Co-Rapporteur of ITU Study Group 20 Question 7 on “Evaluation and assessment of Smart Sustainable Cities and Communities”. He is a member of SDG11 Global Council.

He holds double major B. S. degrees in Industrial and Computer Engineering from Bosphorus University in Istanbul Turkey, an M.S. and a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from University of Massachusetts in USA. 

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Alice Xu is a proud public servant at the City of Toronto for the last 20 years, In her role as Director, Digital City, she oversees the Connected Community/Smart City program in the City of Toronto's Technology Services Division.

The Connected Community team is committed to delivering broader quality of life value for Toronto through the use of data, technology and processes. Prior to joining Technology Services in 2019, Alice spent over 10 years cutting her teeth in the vehicle and business licensing and regulatory world, where she navigated regulatory challenges like ride-sharing and rooming houses. 

Alice leads the work on Toronto's Digital Infrastructure Strategic Framework, the City’s first Council-adopted strategy that provides direction and guidance to decision-making associated with Digital Infrastructure. She is also leading the work on ConnectTO, a program the seeks to bridge the digital divide through leveraging public assets

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Committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities, Eunbyul establishes smart city regional partnerships and creates opportunities for implementation of smart city projects worldwide at the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO).

Eunbyul has a comprehensive understanding of international development cooperation and multilateral governance. Prior to joining WeGO, she was dedicated to bringing sustainable development at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) of Korea, managing OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), Working Party on Development Finance Statistics. Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), Korea’s Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP), and facilitated various collaboration between MOSF and the multilateral development banks.

Eunbyul grew up in both Korea and the UK, holds Master’s degree in Development Policy from KDI School of Public Policy and Management, Graduate Program in INSEEC Grandes Ecole, Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and in Journalism from Ewha Womans University.

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As President and CEO, Michael develops and establishes relationships with municipal governments, businesses and universities internationally, creating a global network of partner cities dedicated to implementing Smart City solutions that improve the quality of life in cities.

Leading Cities builds bridges between academia and action, between business and government, and between urban problems and solutions.Among its signature programs are AcceliCITY- among the largest, most prestigious smart and resilient city solutions focused competitions- and AcceliGOV—a competition of cities vying for globally sourced, expert-vetted, pre-paid pilot projects.

Michael’s career in public service spans from serving three United States Presidents as Special Assistant for White House Operations and Presidential Advance to serving the former Prime Minister of Ireland as a policy research analyst.

He is the only American nominated for the inaugural UK Smart Cities Awards 2017 in the category “Smart City Leader & Promoter and has been recognized globally as a pioneer in the space of Smart Cities for his leadership in networking cities across internationally.

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Jung-hoon (John) Lee is currently professor of Technology & Innovation management at the Graduate School of Information, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He also serves as the Honorary Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan Government since August 2023. 

He is director of the Center for Digital Transformation Technology Management & Information Systems Intelligence Lab. Professor Lee was also a visiting scholar with Stanford Graduate School of Business (2011~2012) and a visiting academic fellow at the Center for Technology Management at University of Cambridge (2020~2021). 

Professor Lee’s recent research and consulting practices focuses on “AI•Data-driven Smart City” for last 15 years, specially the IT-based service design and implementation in urban planning and development. He has been involved in several leading national R&D projects with the South Korean government, including developing a national strategy and vision for Smart City, analyzing and designing Smart City services and 
implementation and developing Performance Management Systems for Smart City Governance & Operations.

He is active in leading the development of 5-year master plans for smart cities, he served as associate project manager for Seoul Metropolitan Government and Busan Metropolitan City, South Korea’s second largest metropolis. 

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Jeff Merritt is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of smart cities, the internet of things, emerging technologies, and government innovation with more than two decades of experience driving social change in the U.S. and abroad.

He leads a growing international team at the World Economic Forum with locations in 14 cities around the globe from San Francisco to São Paulo. Prior to joining the World Economic Forum, he served as New York City’s first-ever Director of Innovation.

Key highlights from this work include helping organize the first entirely online public election in U.S. history; laying the groundwork for the world’s largest, fastest municipal Wi-Fi network; orchestrating the launch and roll-out of the world’s largest city top-level domain; and leading the creation and adoption of new guidelines and tools to promote the responsible and equitable expansion of the internet of things and smart city technologies.

He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan.

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As CIO, Jeff is passionate about the relationship between human experience & design and works to apply people-first design principals to communal ecosystems, such as streets, public space, food systems, and energy. Working at the intersection of urban governance, business and culture, Jeff delivers projects that are economically viable and socially equitable, as well as sustainable in terms of using energy, land and time.

With degrees in Architectural Engineering from the US and City Design and Social Science from London School of Economics, Jeff’s multi-disciplinary background has shaped his cross-cutting holistic approach to all projects. He has worked with both public and private clients as well as non-governmental organizations in Europe, USA, Latin America, India and China.

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Chen-yu Lee is a consultant for Taipei Computer Association (TCA) as well as the director for Taipei Smart City Project Management Office (TPMO) established by Taipei City Government. TCA was built in 1974 and is the leading industrial organization in Taiwan.

Before serving at TCA, Dr. Lee used to work in Institute for Information Industry (III), which is to strengthen the competitiveness of information industry. Dr. Lee has worked on numerous central government projects, including Smart City Promotion Project, Cloud Computing Industry Project, UX Project, E-learning Project, etc., and had over 15 years of research experience in ICT related industry.

TPMO aims to implement an eco-system to combine industry and government resources to develop smart solutions that can satisfy public demands. Since TPMO was established in 2016, Dr. Lee has vigorously led the team to assist Taipei City Government with diverse Smart City projects, including Top-down policy and bottom-up POC (Proof of Concept) projects.

With long-term observation on smart city industry, Dr. Lee is considered one of the experts that able to provide professional analysis and strategic advice service to both smart city and ICT industry development.

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Raj is Head of Digital Birmingham, which is a city-wide partnership made up of over 40 organisations from the private, public and third sectors, working together to exploit the economic and social benefits of digital technologies for businesses and citizens across the city. Raj is a graduate of Aston University.

Digital technologies are one of the major drivers of economic growth, underpinning innovation and through the partnership, Digital Birmingham is influencing the use of technologies to deliver inclusive and local solutions to encourage and develop skills that will enable Birmingham businesses and citizens to exploit the economic, environmental and social benefits of digital innovation.

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Harry Verhaar has over 30 years of experience in the lighting industry and is Head of Global Public & Government Affairs for Signify. He is responsible for the strategy, outreach and stakeholder management on energy & climate change, resource efficiency and sustainable development, with a key focus on the role of the LED lighting revolution. 

Since 2003, he has been the architect of the lighting strategy on energy and climate change, which has resulted in a global momentum on phasing out of old lighting technologies.

He is an active member of a number of partnership and stakeholder networks, among which The Climate Group; Regions20, the World Green Building Council and of the UN Environment Science Business Policy Forum. He is responsible for Philips’ relationship management with the UN and is a founding member of UN Environment’s en.lighten program and the SE4All’s Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform. He is chairman of the European Alliance to Save Energy and is president of the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association.

He holds a MSc in Solid State Luminescence from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Signify became the new company name of Philips Lighting as of May 16, 2018

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Clare is Global Practice Leader for Cities with global engineering, management and development consultancy, Mott MacDonald, and has worked with some of Europe’s highest profile city districts on smart and sustainable outcomes.

She has a background in the built environment, working as a building services engineer on low impact buildings. Her current role involves using systemic engineering at both building and city scale to facilitate the accommodation of more people in urban areas whilst consuming fewer resources, improving resilience and achieving enhanced social outcomes.

She brings a practical understanding of construction and development drivers and processes at both macro and micro level. Combining this with engagement in policy she is able to bring insight into the technical, political, financial and behavioural aspects of sustainable development.

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