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Key speakers at the congress include:
Click on the speaker's name to read their bios
- Ken Livingstone, Former Mayor of London, UK
- Adrian Smith, Partner, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, USA
- Thom Mayne, Principal, Morphosis, USA Pritzker prize winner
- David Fisher, Chairman, Dynamic Architecture, Italy
- Rashad Mohammed Bukham, Director Of Architectural Heritage and Development, Dubai Municipality, UAE
- Wael Al-Masri, Partner and Director of Urban Planning and Architectural Design, Dar Al-Omran, Jordan
- David Baggs, Technical Director, Ecospecifier International, Australia
- Bill Dunster, Principal, ZED Factory, UK
- Dr Suha Ozkan, President, World Architecture Community, Geneva and Istanbul
- Guy Perry, President and Founding Partner, Investment Environments + Vision (IN-VI), Switzerland, Central Europe and Brazil
- David Scott, Chairman, Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Principal, Arup, USA
- Jonathan Speirs, Partner, Speirs and Major Associates, UK
- Mario Seneviratne, FI MechE., P.Eng., Director, Green Technologies FZCO, Founder and Secretary to the Board, Emirates Green Building Council and Board Member and Chairman –Tools & Projects Committee, World Green Building Council, UAE
- Donna Sultan, CEO, KEO Consultants, UAE
- Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, USA
- John Wigham, Director, Cracknell Landscape Architects,UK and UAE
- Gregory Yager, Vice President, RTKL, China
- Khaled Awad, Director, Property Development Unit Masdar, UAE
| Ken Livingstone, Former Mayor of London, UK |
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 Ken Livingstone was born in Lambeth in 1945 and educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School. After eight years working as a technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute in London, he entered Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College, qualifying in 1973.
He was a Labour member of Lambeth Council between 1971 and 1978, holding the position of Vice-Chair of the Housing Committee from 1971 to 1973. From 1978 to 1982 he was a member of Camden Council, where he was Chair of the Housing Committee from 1978 to 1980.
In 1973 he was elected as a Labour member of the Greater London Council. He was Vice-Chair of Housing Management from 1974 to 1975 and was elected Leader in 1981. He remained Leader until March 1986 when Margaret Thatcher abolished the GLC.
From 1987 to June 2001, he served as Labour Member of Parliament for Brent East. He was elected as member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party between 1987 to 1989, and from 1997 to 1998, defeating Peter Mandelson to gain election.
He was elected Mayor of London in May 2000 and was re-elected for a second term in June 2004. He introduced the congestion charge, and restored beat police and bus services. He took the decision to bid for the Olympics with the successful outcome of London being awarded the 2012 games. With the government he led the preparations to deal with the terrorist attack on London in 2005. In January 2007 he produced a climate change action plan which showed how London could reduce its carbon emissions by 60% in 20 years and by 80 to 90% by 2050.
He has written two books, If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It (1987) and Livingstone's Labour (1989) and he is currently working on his autobiography to be published summer 2009.
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| Thom Mayne, Principal, Morphosis, USA Pritzker prize winner |
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 Thom Mayne received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1968 and his Master of Architecture from Harvard University in 1978. He was a founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and has held teaching positions at Columbia University, Harvard University (Elliot Noyes Chair, 1998), Yale University (Eliel Saarinen Chair, 1991), the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands and the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.
Currently, he holds a tenured faculty position at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
His distinguished honors include the National Design Award for Architecture (2006), Pritzker Prize Laureate (2005), Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Design in Rome (1987), the Alumni of the Year Award from USC (1992), Member Elect from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992), and the 2000 American Institute of Architects / Los Angeles Gold Medal in Architecture.
With Morphosis, Thom Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture Awards, 60 AIA Awards and numerous other design recognitions. Under his direction, the firm has been the subject of extensive publications and exhibitions throughout the world.
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| David Fisher, Chairman, Dynamic Architecture, Italy |
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 Dr. Fisher started his career in Florence, Italy. He graduated in Architecture in Florence, where he later taught Architecture, and received a PhD honoris causa from Columbia University, New York.
His experience goes from project development to construction management, from teaching to designing. In the mid-eighties, Dr. Fisher launched Fiteco Ltd in New York, and was involved in the business of prefabrication and construction technologies as well as in the building and development of hotel projects.
Over the last three decades, he has been redefining the technological extremes of buildings in urban centres around the world in locations such as Italy, Dubai, London, Moscow, Paris and Hong Kong.
Dr. Fisher is the inventor and the Architect of the Rotating Skyscrapers, considered now to be the “New Era of Architecture”. The first towers will soon be built in Dubai and Moscow.
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| Rashad Mohammed Bukham, Director Of Architectural Heritage and Development, Dubai Municipality, UAE |
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 Awards: 1998 - Best employee of Dubai government departments. (Out of about 40000 employee), 1999 - Best supervision employee of the governmental departments of Dubai, 2002 - Rashid Award for Excellency.
Positions: 1987 - Planner architect, Dubai Municipality, 1991 - Head of architectural restoration unit, Dubai Municipality,
1995 - head of Historical buildings section, Dubai Municipality, 2003 - Director of maintenance department, Dubai unicipality, 2004 - Director of general projects department, Dubai Municipality, 2008 - Director of architectural heritage department, Dubai Municipality.
Areas of experience:
- Survey, record, design and restoration of historical buildings. (supervised restoration of 135 old buildings)
- Museum design. (10 museums till to date)
- Preparing and reviewing text for museums, books and documentary films. (more than 20 books)
- Planning, organizing, and managing of engineering projects. (300 projects in projects dept.)
- Heritage, architecture and history of United Arab Emirates.
- Lecturer in both Arabic and English on architecture, history and conservation.
- Research in history, culture, architecture and conservation. (More than 10 papers)
- Magazine editorial, text reviewing and graphic design.
Publications:
- Reference book for the traditional architecture of Dubai, 1998.
- Managing of conservation projects in Dubai. Master degree 2001.
- Tourist map of historic Dubai 2001.
- The Bedya mosque 2004.
- Dubai Municipality museum 2005.
- Types of traditional markets in the emirates (Arabic) 2005.
- The traditional gypsum decoration 2006.
- Summary of Dubai history 2007.
- Stories on traditional architecture of the Emirates (final review).
Memberships: 1987 - Society of Engineers, UAE, 1991 - Member in the board of directors of the society of engineers, UAE, 1997 - English heritage, U. K, 2001 - ICOMOS, International council of Monuments and Sites, Paris, France, 2002 - Member of the advisory board for the school of architecture in the American University of Sharjah, 2003 - Chairman of Architectural Heritage Society, U.A.E.
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| David Baggs, Technical Director, Ecospecifier International, Australia |
 David Baggs FRAIA ABSA MRoySocAS is Technical Director of ecospecifier an industry leading knowledge and database of eco-preferable products now in 4 countries including UAE. He is an award winning chartered architect, sustainability, energy-efficiency consultant and LEED and Green Star Accredited Professional and Green Building Council of Australia Independent Chair, with nearly 30 years experience. He was sustainability, energy and eco-product and materials consultant to 10 Olympic projects including the Olympic Village and the Sydney SuperDome and more recently Sydney’s new Green Square Town. He is co-author of several books and curriculum on Sustainable Development and is a regular keynote speaker and provider of executive and staff training in sustainability. |
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| Dr Suha Ozkan, President, World Architecture Community, Geneva and Istanbul |
 Dr Suha Ozkan, architect, historian, and theorist studied architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, and theory of design at the Architectural Association in London. He has undertaken extensive research on the theory and history of architecture, design, vernacular form and has published numerous articles and monographs. At METU, he taught for 15 years and became Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in 1978; he was appointed Vice-President of the university in 1979. He also taught and lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Central/ South and Southeast Asia and throughout the Middle East. He has served as a jury member for many international architectural competitions and doctoral assessments at the schools of architecture of various universities. With the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Geneva, Dr Ozkan served as the Deputy Secretary General from 1983 to 1990, and has been the Secretary General between 1991 - 2006. In 2002, Dr Ozkan was elected as a Council Member (Region II) of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and President of the UIA’s XXII Congress in 2005. Among many honours he received Hon F AIA from American Institute of Architects in 2004. In 2006 He retired from the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and established World Architecture Community as a public company. |
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| Guy Perry, President and Founding Partner, Investment Environments + Vision (IN-VI), Switzerland, Central Europe and Brazil |
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 Prior to founding IN-VI, Guy Perry worked with international development organizations (TrizecHahn, Kajima Corporation) and had the opportunity to collaborate with many worlds’ leading designers. He earned two master’s degrees from Harvard University, received fellowship from the Urban Land Institute and the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Foundation. Guy Perry has been a visiting faculty member at Harvard University and currently at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) leading graduate students on research studios in both Europe and South America.
IN-VI is design and development services company established in 2000 to create opportunities and to meet the environmental challenges of the new millennium. IN-VI has become a leader in creation of large scale sustainable environments.
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| David Scott, Chairman, Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Principal, Arup, USA |
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 David Scott is a Principal at Arup, the international engineering design firm. He is a leader of the Arup New York office responsible for the Building Engineering Business.
In 2006, he became Chair of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based organization of architects, engineers, planners, developers and contractors, which exists to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating the built environment in urban contexts throughout the world.
David graduated with a first class BSc in Engineering from Edinburgh University and joined the London office of Arup in 1977 as a structural engineer.
During his career David has been based in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. He spent 15 years based in South East Asia, working on Arup’s first major building projects in China, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan. While based in Hong Kong he has worked on many award winning and innovative projects, such as the Hongkong Bank Headquarters, the Biological Sciences Building at HKU, the International Airport Terminal Building in Hong Kong and the 300m Cheung Kong Center for Hong Kong’s largest developer.
David moved to New York in 1998 to take up a key role in the Arup Buildings Business in the United States. From New York he has worked with leading architects on a wide range of tall buildings, major infrastructure projects and long span structures. These projects included the redevelopment of New York’s Penn Station, Second Avenue Subway project which has 16 stations and 8 miles of track as well several commercial tall building projects.
In 2001 David was one of the team leaders working with the contractors on the search, recovery and clean-up of the World Trade Center site after 9-11. This was part of the SEoNY led effort that was coordinated by Thornton Thomasetti. And following 9-11 he was extensively involved in the industry review of building design and standards; presenting a paper on Fire Induced Progressive Collapse at the NIST Chicago conference, and being involved with the review of GSA’s new design requirements to mitigate progressive collapse, that were issues in 2002. He also worked extensively with Daniel Libeskind on the WTC masterplan and his design for Freedom Tower.
David has written papers on Seismic Design in Areas of Low to Moderate Seismicity, fire and structures, composite structures and the design of long-span roofs. In 2004-2005 David was working on four 500m towers with architects Cesar Pelli, KPF and Daniel Libeskind.
In February 2006 David was elected as Chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
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| Mario Seneviratne, FI MechE., P.Eng., Director, Green Technologies FZCO, Founder and Secretary to the Board, Emirates Green Building Council and Board Member and Chairman –Tools & Projects Committee, World Green Building Council, UAE |
 Mario has been working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates since 1977. He has been actively involved in the design and construction of many industrial and commercial buildings, which have energy conservation and / or sustainable features. A post graduate from the university of Alabama, Birmingham USA, Mario has specialized in HVAC design and construction and has been recognized as a Member of ASHRAE, IEEE, and as a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. This has lead to his active participation in the United States Green Building Council LEED program. He was a committee member of the LEED Version 1 development committee and participated in the LEED Version 1 pilot program. Mario was responsible for having the award winning Kandalama Hotel certified as a LEED Bronze project, the first LEED building outside continental USA. He has served on many technical committees addressing Green Design and Practice, and has been the Co-chair for the USGBC Program Committee, Green Build 2002 and 2003. Mario is one of the Founders of the Emirates Green Building Council and holds the office of Secretary to the Board. He is also the current Chairman of the Tools and Projects Committee of the World Green Building Council. Mario is actively involved in the development of Green Buildings and has developed The First LEED Green Building in the Middle East, The WAFI CITY District Cooling Chiller Plant. He is now The Director of Engineering, Green Technologies UAE, a company of mechanical and electrical engineers committed to Sustainable Development. |
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| John Wigham, Director, Cracknell Landscape Architects,UK and UAE |
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 John Wigham DipLA (Leeds); Junior Fellow of the Rideau Institute of Canada.
Art college background – painting, sculpture, graphics and photography. Award-winning Landscape Architecture student (including international prize for self-sufficient community): career grounding in bottom-up urban rehabilitation in West of Scotland; then pioneered inner city housing programme in Portsmouth, Hampshire. In 1985 launched own UK practice specialising in commercial projects, especially USA-style Business Parks, working in UK, Germany and the USA; subsequently expanding into landscape masterplanning, and gave evidence as Expert Witness on impact in UK Planning system to over 50 Planning Inquiries. In early 2000’s moved from practice to interior design and property redevelopment. Joined Cracknell DXB in 2007 to strengthen the design team, focusing on internal structures and branch office establishment. BBC World TV appearance May 2008.
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| Gregory Yager, Vice President, RTKL, China |
 A talented architect, urban planner and designer, Mr. Yager brings to RTKL over twenty years of experience in urban design and Master Planning of mixed use, new community, urban and suburban development projects. Mr Yager also offers extensive experience in the design and master planning of large-scale retail, office, medical, and conference developments. Mr. Yager joined RTKL in 1980, and was promoted to vice president in 1994. After serving as Director of RTKL’s urban design in the London office, Mr. Yager is now the the director of the urban design and Master Planning studio at RTKL Shanghai. He was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2007. |
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| Khaled Awad, Director, Property Development Unit Masdar, UAE |
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 Khaled Awad is the Director of Property Development at Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the company driving the Masdar Initiative. The key objective of Masdar is to position Abu Dhabi as a world-class research and development hub for new energy technologies through building an alternative energy city, development of specialist carbon management systems, sustainable technology innovation and investment.
Khaled is currently overseeing the development in Abu Dhabi of the Masdar Zone, the first zero carbon and zero waste city in the world. Prior to his role in Masdar, Khaled has been working in the construction industry in the Arabian Gulf for more than 22 years. He was the founder and CEO of various companies in construction and real estate, dealing with the supply and IT side of the industry as well as concept development of large scale projects.
He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), A Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and a Fellow of the Institute of Concrete Technology (ICT). He is an active member of several ACI committees, including the ACI Board Advisory Committee on Sustainability and was the recipient of the Henry Kennedy Award from ACI in April 2007.
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