Mayors_bio 8

USA
Boston

Prof. Spiro Pollalis is Professor of Design, Technology and Management at the Harvard Design School. Prof. Pollalis is an expert in sustainability and in planning large sustainable projects. At Harvard University, he is the Director of the “Zofnass Program for the Sustainability of Infrastructure” and the Principal Investigator of the project “Sustainable Urbanism on the Arab Gulf.” He is also the co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Singapore-ETH Switzerland Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability. He has taught as a visiting professor at the ETH-Zurich, TU-Delft and the University of Stuttgart.

The Zofnass Program at Harvard, under the direction of Prof. Pollalis has created the Envision® sustainability rating system for infrastructure, now administered by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, in Washington DC.

In his private practice, Prof. Pollalis has been the chief planner of the new DHA City Karachi for 600,000 people, which is under construction, the LDA City in Lahore and the redevelopment of the former Athens airport.

Prof. Pollalis received his Master’s and PhD from MIT (1979, 1982) and his MBA in high technology from Northeastern University (1985). He has an honorary Master’s degree in Architecture from Harvard (1994).

RUSSIA
Ufa

Ulfat Mustafin was elected Mayor of Ufa city in October, 2018. He was born in 1959 in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.

He graduated from Ufa State Aviation University with a degree in labour organization and normalization and earned a Ph.D. degree in engineering.

He is also a Full State Counselor 1st Class of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Ulfat Mustafin was awarded with Honorary Certificate of the Republic of Bashkortostan (2000), Certificate of Gratitude of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation (2003), Honorary Certificate of Ufa City Council (1998), Certificate of Gratitude of Public Company “Gaz-Servis” (2001), Anniversary Medal “450 years since Bashkortostan joined Russia” (2007) and was a Deputy of the Ufa City Council (1995-1999).

CANADA
Vancouver

Sean Pander, Green Building Program Manager for the City of Vancouver is a professional engineer with a background in urban planning and is a recipient of Canada’s Clean50 award.

Originally an engineer for a large multinational oil pipeline company, his transfer to Chicago from the Canadian prairies catalyzed personal inquiries into what made cities contribute to, or inhibit , the ability of citizens and the natural environment to thrive.  

Following a shift in his professional direction, Sean managed the development of Vancouver’s global award winning Greenest City 2020 Action Plan.  More recently he developed the city’s Zero Emissions Building Plan that has been recognized by the World Green Building Council for its leadership.  

Initial implementation of the Plan has resulted in new regulations, supported by industry and aligned with the UNECE Framework Guidelines on Energy Efficiency Standards, that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new construction by 70%.  Supplementary work has catalyzed developers of thousands of new housing units to voluntarily pursue zero emission construction.   

Sean’s team at the city is now expanding its scope to consider embodied emissions, construction methods, and materials such as mass timber along with approaches for improving the health, resilience, and sustainability of existing buildings.

CROATIA
Sveta Nedelja

Davor Nadji is Deputy Mayor of the City of Sveta Nedelja, Croatia.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from the Faculty of Economics and Business of Zagreb, and a master's Degree in Economics from the same Faculty. He is a member of the Croatian People's Party-Liberal Democrats from 2008, and prior to becoming a Deputy Mayor of the City of Sveta Nedelja, he worked as an application consultant specialist for a private company.