Clay Garner: Innovation Ambassador, SmartCitiesWorld

Clay Garner leads public-private partnerships focused on improving urban infrastructure and economic opportunity. He joined SmartCitiesWorld as an Innovation Ambassador in 2023, sitting on the Knowledge Community for NEOM and the Global Cybersecurity Forum Institute. 

Previously, Clay was Chief Innovation Officer to Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose, where he drove efforts to bridge the digital divide for 300,000 residents, invest in the future of mobility, pass the city’s first digital privacy policy, and recruit tech talent from Silicon Valley. Prior to entering city service, Clay worked at Google and was a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University.

Before he got into civic tech, Garner enjoyed a brief stint as a teenage music phenom in China, when his covers of Mandarin pop songs went viral on Chinese social media platforms. He is a graduate of Stanford University and is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.