Josef Konvitz Keynote Speaker

Josef Konvitz is a global authority on urban development, regulation, and crisis management.

He is Honorary Professor of Education, Glasgow University (2010-15), and Visiting Professor, Cities Programme, King’s College London (2012-15) where he is developing a series of international seminars on “The Future of Cities: The New Limits to Growth”. He is also Chair-Designate of the Pascal International Observatory, dedicated to place-based development grounded in the cooperation of institutions of higher education and regions.

From 2003 to 2011, Josef served as Head of the Regulatory Policy Division at the OECD. Previously he was Head of the Urban Affairs Division. He directed country reviews of regulatory reform in Russia, China, Australia, France, Sweden, and Switzerland, and monitoring exercises of Japan, Mexico and Korea. He also led a programme of co-operation on regulatory policy to enhance competitiveness in Mexico. In addition, he was responsible for updating the OECD recommendations on regulatory reform and for the preparation of the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist for Regulatory Reform.

His work at Michigan State University on urban policy included reviews of Metropolitan Melbourne and Metropolitan Athens, as well as the Urban Renaissance Reviews. He directed a study on urban indicators, the Ecological City project, a major report on Distressed Urban Areas, and organised the OECD-Australia Conference on Cities and the New Global Economy.