City projects are not failing for lack of vision or money.
Between government vision and a city project that actually works, there is a gap most consultants cannot navigate. I have spent the last 20 years navigating this globally.
From greenfield city developments in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to smart airport cities in India to urban strategy for governments in Singapore, Africa, Europe and beyond, I work at the intersection of government vision, real estate reality, and city-scale technology. I help projects get built, get rescued, and get governed properly.
Strategic and real estate lead at one of the world’s first zero-carbon smart city developments. Rebuilt the real estate demand models and land-use mix to make a $20B master plan commercially feasible, not just architecturally iconic. Led overaseas FDI attraction delegations.
Director Cognitive City for the development arm of NEOM’s industrial city. Led technology strategy and selection across all built assets and integration with transport, waste, energy, water, security, operational property management & asset management systems.
Head of Smart Cities across GMR Group. Developed the smart city strategy enabling Delhi Airport to try and handle growth from 70 million to over 100 million passengers without major additional hard infrastructure spend.
TEDx Chiang Mai Thailand – The “How” of Cities is one of Gordon’s major city issues and helping cities and developers to discover “how” to actually structure and implement projects and strategies. Too much city talk is about “why” and “what” rather than “how”. This TEDx explains the differences. Most technology providers in the city space are mostly only interested in selling their products or the “what” without any real understanding of the “how” or even the “why” so watch this presentation and think about the issues raised.
Masdar City in Sydney Australia – Overseas Delegation for a City Masdar City in Abu Dhabi was the original smart city and remains an iconic example of new city development. Gordon Falconer was there at the beginning as the Head of Strategy when 500 consultants and engineers were planning and designing the $20B zero carbon master planned city. This video from Channel 10 in Sydney Australia gives you a feel for what was happening in 2008 at Masdar City and the focus it held around the world.