Guest Speakers

Matthew Baldwin

Matthew Baldwin has served in the European Commission for over 20 years, and has been Deputy Director-General at DG MOVE, the transport department, since July 2016.

His main current focus is as Manager of the Commission’s Horizon Europe Mission for 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030. He is also the EU coordinator for road safety and sustainable urban mobility.

He is of Italian and British nationality, has two sons, speaks English, French and Italian and lives in Brussels. He is passionate about the potential for cities to take the lead in acting against climate change, and is a keen but increasingly slow cyclist.


Caroline Nevejan

She is Professor by special appointment with the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. Her research is focused on Designing Urban Experience.

She is a researcher and designer who has been involved with the emerging network society and digital culture since the 1980’s. She is a regular presenter at national and international fora. She is an advisor to national and European policy makers.

As of 20th of March 2017, she has been appointed Chief Science Officer of the city of Amsterdam.

She has been chair of the Centre of Investigative Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London and member of the supervisory board of Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam.


Sheila Foster

She is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Urban Law and Policy at Georgetown University. She holds a joint appointment with the Law Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy. During the 2021-2022 academic year, she is serving as the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Law Center. 

She also co-directs LabGov, an international applied research project that has pioneered a new model of urban governance and a path toward more equitable management of a city’s infrastructure and services.


Elias G. Carayannis

He is a full professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C., as well as the co-founder and co-director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and the director of research on Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the European Union Research Center (EURC).

Dr. Carayannis’s teaching and research activities focus on the areas of strategic Government-University-Industry R&D partnerships, technology road-mapping, technology transfer and commercialization, international science and technology policy, technological entrepreneurship and regional economic development.

He has consulted for a wide variety of technology-driven organizations in both government and the private sector, including the World Bank, the European Commission, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Agency for International Development, the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program.


Marie Yeroyanni

She is a senior expert in Innovating Cities Policy Initiative with a scientific background in civil engineering. She has been working 27 years in the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation.

Maria has coordinated several activities related to cities/ urban issues and recently the High-Level Expert Group on Innovating cities. The High-Level Expert Group was engaged to advise the Commission on R&I investments on the cities of the future. The Group has just submitted to the Commission a visionary independent report on “The Human Centred City: Opportunities for citizens through Research and Innovation “.


Harini Nagendra

She is Professor at Azim Premji University in Bangalore and Director of the University Center for climate change and Sustainability.

She has worked with Elinor Ostrom Nobel prize for Economy on urban commons 

Over the past 25 years, Harini has been at the leading edge of research examining conservation in forests and cities of South Asia from the perspective of both landscape ecology and social justice. For her interdisciplinary research and practice, she has received many awards including the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize from the US National Academy of Sciences, the 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and the 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award. 


Pia Laurila

She is Policy Officer at DG Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission in the Unit ‘Inclusive Growth, Territorial and Urban Development‘. She joined the Unit in 2018, and her responsibilities include, inter alia, sustainable urban development and knowledge-related activities, and in particular, the topics in the area of ‘greening of cities’. Pia is part of the team that is responsible for the design and setting up of a novel instrument European Urban Initiative under Cohesion Policy. Prior to her current position, she worked 13 years at DG Research and Innovation in the areas of urban, rural and regions-related research and innovation as well as enhancement of synergies between the R&I Framework Programmes and the Cohesion Policy Funds.


Gaël Giraud

He is a French and Jesuit economist. He teaches Economics at Georgetown University in Washington and directs the Program for Environmental Justice, which he founded. Fellow of the International Energy Agency, he is a research director at the CNRS in Paris, where he also teaches political theology at the Centre Sèvres. Former chief economist of the Agence française de Développement, he published Ecological Transition (EMI 2015), winner of the «Prix Lycéen du livre économique» and the «Premio Biella Letteratura e Industria».


Elena De Nictolis

She is Post-doctoral researcher at Georgetown University, Environmental Justice Program since September 2021. Her primary research interests are in urban public policies and law, cities and the quality of democracy and how cities are facing global challenges – with an emphasis on social, tech, climate justice.

She was also Research Fellow in the LabGov.city Horizon2020 projects “Open Heritage on adaptive reuse of cultural heritage with commons-based mechanisms and “EUARENAS”, on deliberative and ethical co-governance in EU Cities.

At Luiss University (Rome) she is adjunct Professor of Urban Law and Policy and Governance of Innovation and Sustainability and was coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Urban Clinic (2017-2019).


Rodrigo Martínez Suárez

He has been Country Academic Director in Architecture and Interior Design at the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica for more than 10 years.

Writer in magazines, national and international speaker, Jury in Contests and Biennials outside the country, Tutor and Lecturer of Thesis, Final Graduation Projects and Professional Practices.

University teacher for more than 15 years in Design Workshops, Theories and Histories of Architecture, Seminars, Construction, Landscaping, Heritage, among others.

Private Design Consultant and Technical Director of Architectural Projects.


Antonio Gullo

He is Full Professor of Criminal Law at the Department of Law of Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome.

He is Coordinator of the Doctorate in Law and Enterprise at the Department of Law of Luiss University and Coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Business Criminal Law, in Cybersecurity: public policies, Regulation and management and in Compliance and prevention of corruption in the public and private sectors of the Luiss University.