Join us for this FREE webinar launching the 2020 Attractiveness of Global Business Districts Report, published jointly by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and EY.

Please note that this webinar will take place at 4:00pm BST (British Summer Time) / 5:00pm CEST (Central European Summer Time).

For those dialling in from the Americas, please note that the webinar will take place at 11:00am EDT (Eastern Daily Time). By registering in advance, you will automatically receive a recording of the webinar after it has concluded.

Webinar Summary:

This webinar marks the launch of the 2020 Attractiveness of Global Business Districts Report, a ULI and EY partnership. This report is the only international study which assesses and compares the world’s leading business districts. The research looks at the world’s largest concentrations of businesses, skills, economic power and capital.

This report comes at a difficult time for cities and business districts. This webinar delves into the report and includes a panel discussion on the key themes, and how business districts will need to change and adapt to changing user demands, with a specific focus on the current crisis and what might be the changes in expectations and requirements for business districts coming out of the Covid-19 crisis. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A session.

Report Presenter
Vincent Raufast, Senior Manager, EY

Vincent is a Senior Manager in the Attractiveness and Competiveness team, in the EY consulting practice.

As such, he acts as the head of the EY ILAS center of excellence (International Location Advisory Services), with over 15 years of experience assisting companies in their international location strategies for a wide range of activities such as Manufacturing, Logistics, Headquarters, R&D centers, Digital hubs and Shared Services Centers.

Vincent has also been advising countries, regions and cities in the design of their FDI attractiveness strategies in the EMEIA region (e.g. France, Ireland, Lithuania, Scotland, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa…) and Latin America (Costa Rica, Colombia).

He has been the project manager of the EY European Attractiveness survey for the past 15 years and he is a key project advisor to country / region specific attractiveness reports (France, UK, Germany, Africa…). Vincent is also the project lead of other EY’s thought leadership programs such as the economic impact of the Cultural and Creative industries.

Moderated by:
Lisette van Doorn, CEO, ULI Europe

As chief executive of ULI Europe, Lisette van Doorn is  responsible for the development of the Institute’s activities across the region, including its renowned pan-European conferences and over 250 local meetings and events across 14 countries. She is also responsible for the ULI Charitable Trust, which raises money to advance ULI’s mission and philanthropic activities across Europe.

Van Doorn joined ULI from LIRE, her own consultancy business, which advises international institutional real estate investors and fund managers on strategy, organisational optimisation and portfolio structuring.

Prior to this, van Doorn was country manager for CBRE Global Investors where she managed a €1.6bn portfolio of assets in Italy and fund manager of two shopping centre funds (€ 1.3 billion) with assets in Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Before joining CBRE Global Investors, van Doorn was founding chief executive for INREV, the European association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles for four and a half years. She started her career at ING Investment Management, where she held account manager and assistant controller positions before being made managing director of research & strategy for ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe.

Panellists :

Michael M. Edwards, President & CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance
Michael M. Edwards is the President & CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance. Since joining Chicago Loop Alliance in 2012, President and CEO Michael M. Edwards has been directing the organization’s strategic plan to deliver a high-performing urban experience attractive people and investment to the Loop. Edwards is a founding member of the Global Business District Innovation Club, a group formed in 2018 and located in Paris, France, as well as a member of the International Downtown Association Board of Directors.

His experience also includes six years as President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, where he administered the City’s business improvement district, advocating for businesses and property owners and marketing downtown as the region’s premier location to live, work, shop, dine, play and visit.

For seven years, he was also responsible for overseeing advocacy and comprehensive service programs for Spokane’s central 80-block business improvement district as President and CEO of the Downtown Spokane Partnership. He has also served as Principal of The Saratoga Associates and Executive Director of the Buffalo Place, Inc., in Buffalo, New York.

Michael is a recognized expert in downtown management and frequently speaks internationally on key downtown opportunities and challenges most recently at the CBD Beijing Innovation Development Conference. Originally from Buffalo, he holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and Bachelor of Arts from Canisius College.

Marie-Célie Guillaume, Chairman of the Global Business Districts Innovation Club and CEO of Paris La Défense

Graduated from the Political Studies Institute of Paris and holding a master’s degree in International Relations from Boston Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Marie-Célie Guillaume lived in England, Canada, Argentina and the United States.

She started her career at the communication consulting agency Regards international. Then, she became the associate CEO of Key People, a company specialized in the creation and animation of a leaders’ club.

In 2002, she became Communication Advisor at the Ministry of Local Liberties. At the same position, she joined the Ministry of Industry, then the Minister in charge of the Recovery plan, as Advisor. In 2007, she has been appointed as Chief of Staff to the President of the Hauts-de-Seine Department General Council.

She set up LBP Conseil, in 2012, to provide advices and support to companies and local authorities. In 2014, she was appointed as CEO of Defacto, the local authority in charge of La Défense business district.

From 2015 to 2018, she was Departmental Counselor and Counselor at the Ile-de-France Regional Council. Since 2018, she is the Chairman of the Global Business Districts Innovation Club and the CEO of Paris La Défense, local authority in charge of urban planning and Management of Paris La Défense Business District, where she launched and develops the new strategy for the territory.

James von Klemperer, President of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

James von Klemperer is an architect practicing in New York. He serves as President and Design Principal of Kohn Pedersen Fox, a global practice of 700, with offices in NY, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. In each of these cities, KPF has excelled in designing and delivering clusters of large mixed use buildings that help to define central business culture.

Such projects include Hudson Yards NY, Boston Seaport, Roppongi Hills Tokyo, Marina Bay Financial Center Singapore, and Jingan Kerry Center in Shanghai, which was given the Global Excellence Award in 2015 by the ULI. In each case, KPF functioned as master planner, collaborating with private clients and public groups to arrive at the programming of complementary uses. His design for One Vanderbilt tower anchors the transit connected district of recently rejuvenated East Midtown Manhattan.

Mr von Klemperer sits as President on the Boards of the Urban Design Forum and the Skyscraper Museum in New York. He holds degrees from Harvard and Princeton, was Fiske Fellow at Trinity College Cambridge, and has taught for two years as Saarinen visiting Professor at Yale. He continues to draw, and design projects in detail, as he oversees the larger practice.

Laurent Lavergne, Global Head of Asset Management & Development, AXA IM – Real Assets

Laurent Lavergne is currently Global Head of Asset Management & Development at AXA IM – Real Assets. He is also a member of the firm’s Management Board.

Prior to his current position, Laurent was Co-Head of Fund Management and has also held the position of Head of Separate Accounts and International Development (2013-2016) for AXA IM – Real Assets. Additionally, in 2007, he became Head of Fund Management for AXA Group Clients at AXA IM – Real Assets. From 1999 to 2007, he was Global Head of Corporate Finance at AXA IM – Real Assets. Prior to that, he worked at AXA IM – Real Assets as a member of the Corporate Finance team. Laurent has 25+ years of experience in the real estate industry and is a Finance graduate from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Le Havre-Caen.

Closing Remarks
Marc Lhermitte, Partner, EY

Marc is a Senior Partner in EY’s consulting practice. He has over 25 years of experience assessing the competitiveness and attractiveness of industries, countries, cities and infrastructure for public sector entities, financial investors, real estate players and multinationals.

Since 2017, Marc leads EY’s EMEIA initiatives on geopolitics. He coordinates EY’s renowned “Attractiveness” surveys, based on interviews with over 5,000 business leaders every year who are asked about their investment plans and perception of countries and regions.

He is also involved in a number of EY’s thought leadership programs on sectors such as creative industries, real estate, digital and services.

In addition, he is part of EY’s Public Sector and Real Estate leadership teams. Marc also serves on the board of the Europe + Foundation and is a member of the European Executive Council.