GEF6 China Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot Project Annual Workshop on Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)

Mr. Alejandro Alcala-Gerez, a Mexican national, took up his assignment as the World Bank’s Operations Manager for China, Mongolia and Korea in August 2021. In his role, Mr. Alcala-Gerez is responsible for the management of all operational aspects of the country program and serves as Deputy Chief of Mission.

Prior to his present assignment, Mr. Alcala-Gerez was the Regional Legal Coordinator for the East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia regions from 2018 to 2021. Between 2012 and 2018, Mr. Alcala-Gerez served as the Resident Counsel for China, Mongolia and Korea in the Beijing Office. 

Mr. Alcala-Gerez has over 17 years of experience in the World Bank and has held various operational positions in three different regions, including assignments in Washington DC, Argentina, China and Thailand, since he joined the Bank in 2004.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Alcala-Gerez worked for the New York law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, for the corporate legal department of Banco Nacional de Mexico - Citibank, and for the legal department of two government ministries in his home country.

Mr. Alcala-Gerez holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Chicago and has pursued graduate studies in Law and International Relations in Mexico and Argentina, respectively.

Yan XueDong, Professor, doctor, doctoral supervisor of the school of transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, national 10000-person plan - young and middle-aged leading talents in science and technology, head of the "research and innovation team of urban integrated transportation big data intelligent computing platform" of the Ministry of transport, and chief scientist of the "Key Laboratory of integrated transportation big data industry" of the Ministry of transport. It was selected into the first batch of the national "thousand youth plan" and won the National Award for advanced individuals of Returned Overseas Chinese and their relatives. Yan Xuedong's main research fields include driving traffic safety, driving simulator, data statistics and model analysis. In recent years, he has presided over major international cooperative research projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, general projects, task of the national high-tech research and development plan (863), task of the Ministry of science and Technology (973), doctoral program fund project of the Ministry of education and many other national, provincial and ministerial projects. He has published more than 160 sci/ssci indexed journal papers and obtained more than 20 invention patents. Professor Yan Xuedong is currently part-time editor in chief of the International Journal of Transportation Safety & security, a member of the American Transportation Research Board (TRB), an expert of the China Intelligent Transportation Association, and an IET fellow of the British Institute of engineering and technology.

Han BaoMing, professor and doctoral supervisor of School of Traffic and transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University. The main research fields are transportation organization modernization, passenger dedicated line operation and dispatching command, urban rail transit planning and management, etc. In recent years, he has presided over and participated in more than 40 provincial and ministerial projects such as the National Nature Fund and the Ministry of railways. Nearly 100 papers have been published in domestic and foreign journals, many of which have been retrieved by SCI and EI. He has published textbooks and treatises such as introduction to high-speed railway and transportation design theory and method of passenger dedicated line transfer hub. At the same time, he has served as the president of the magazine "urban rapid rail transit", the deputy director of the editorial board of the Journal of Beijing Jiaotong University, a member of the Hong Kong Transportation Research Association, a member of the China Railway Society, and a director of the urban rail transit technical working Committee of the civil engineering society.

With more than 15 years of experience in integrated urban planning and design, urban resilience, public policy, city management, municipal services and finance and sustainable development. She led and contributed technical expertise to numerous operation projects and analytical studies in more than 15 countries across four regions (ECA, AFR, SA, EAP). Prior to joining the World Bank as a Young Professional, she was an Executive Planner with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore's national urban planning agency. At the URA, she led various international urban planning/management consultancies and government-to-government collaborations notably with China, oversaw planning initiatives in Singapore, and conducted capacity-building activities and training for international participants. Chyi-Yun holds a M.Sc. in Urban Planning from Columbia University, New York and a B.A. in Architecture from the National University of Singapore, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

After completing a B.A in Economics (School of Political Science and Economics) of Waseda University, Nori (Noriaki) joined Tokyu Corporation in 1991. In the past 29 years, he spent 23 years in domestic development projects and 6 years in overseas development project (Australia and Vietnam). He specializes in consulting and has a successful track record of engaging business partners to projects. His recent achievements are as follows; Invitation of Keio Yokohama Elementary School (2013), Establishment of Viet-Hoa International School (2019, Binh Duong New City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam), Minami Machida Grandberry Park (2019, Machida City).

1984 Master of Engineering, University of Tokyo

1984 Tokyu Corporation

1987 Tokyu Research Institute Inc.

1995 Ph.D the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London

1995 Tokyu Corporation

2010 Tokyu Station Retail Service Inc.

2013 Tokyu Coporation

2019 Tokyu Architects and Engineers Inc.

2020 Tokyu Research Institute Inc.

Sakaki is a Senior Transport Specialist with the World Bank Transport unit for South East Asia and the Pacific, serving as Transport Program Coordinator in Vietnam, where he oversees a portfolio of $1B lending and a variety of technical assistance and study projects. Shige co-leads the Community of Practice for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank, he was with the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for 15 years, where he worked on urban transport, urban development and land use planning, regional development, and flood management. Shige holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Harvard Kennedy School and Master of Civil Engineering from Kyoto University. He is a registered Professional Engineer and Land Readjustment Planner, and a certified Meteorologist in Japan.

Milena Ivković is a Dutch-Serbian public space designer and civic participation innovator.

She is the CEO of the Placemaking Western Balkans – based in Belgrade, Serbia – a non-profit organization doing research, action and education for better public spaces in the cities across the Balkans and SEE region through placemaking. She is currently the Board Member of Placemaking Europe.

Next to leading the Placemaking Balkans movement, Milena is the creative director of BLOK 74 – Office for Urban Simulations and Urban Communications, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. BLOK 74 is a digital design collective with expertise in serious games and gamified simulations for civic participation and scientific communication.

Milena served as a Board Member of ISOCARP, International Society of City and Regional Planners, and Chairwomen of Yellow Design Foundation.

She is a regular speaker at international events on the topics examining the links between digital futures, civic engagement, and inclusive public space design.

Dr. Shaojun Chen is a Professor of the School of Public Management, Hohai University. She has over 20 years of experience in social safeguard consulting on social impact assessment, resettlement planning and related topics for projects financed by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other international financial organizations.

Dr. XIA Haishan is professor of School of Architecture and Design at Beijing Jiaotong University, and serve as Chairman of Academic Committee. He used to be previous dean (2011-2019) of the School of Architecture and Design. He is also the dean of Urban Planning and Design Research Institute BJTU, and the vice dean of Transit Oriented Development Academy in Beijing Jiaotong University. Prof. XIA is council member of Architectural Society of China, vice president of Beijing Architecture Society. Professor XIA is mainly engaged in the research of transit-oriented development, smart city, digital urban design, and teaching activities includes Urban Design, Smart and Sustainable City Design. He has been awarded Jeme Tien Yow Railway Science and Technology Award in special contribution. 

Prof. Qiang Sheng is the director of architecture department in the School of Architecture and Design, Beijing Jiaotong University. He is also a Senior Consultant in UCL Space Syntax Ltd. His research interests include the relationship between street pattern and urban vitality, commercial building design and spatial strategy for TOD based on the empirical research of pedestrian movement. He has accomplished one and participated eight National Natural Science Funds. His research also expands to the use of web open-source data in space syntax researches and he is also exploring the ‘data-informed design’ approach in his teaching and practice career. As executive chair Qiang Sheng organized the 12th international Space Syntax Symposium in 2019 and the 1st conference of Space Syntax in China in 2015.

Dr. Zhang is the board member in Association of China Planning, vice secretory and board member in China Regional Science Association, Board Member of the Beijing Institution of Engineers. Research interests focus on synergy development between rail transit and urban form, job-housing balance and job accessibility. She teaches classes including Introduction to Urban Planning, GIS and Big Data Application. She has been PI of NSF China for general and young programs. Chun received her doctoral degree in human geography from Peking University, and participated a collaborative training PhD program in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 2009-2010. She received her bachelor’s degree in both urban planning and economics from Peking University. She had been a post-doctoral research fellow in PKU-Lincoln Institute Center for Urban Development and Land Policy between 2011-2013. She has been awarded for Jeme Tien Yow Rail Technology Award, IACP Distinguish Award and Committee of 100 (C-100) Young Leadership Scholarship.

Born in 1957, M.E. from Tokyo Institute of Technology. Served as a civil servant of the Japanese Government from 1982 to 2011; engaged in national/regional territorial development, disaster risk reduction, emergency management and international cooperation; seconded to UN-Habitat Headquarters (Nairobi, Kenya), UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs (Geneva, Switzerland), Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution as Deputy Executive Director (Kobe, Japan), Fire and Disaster Management Agency of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Served as Senior Human Settlement Officer and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, UN-Habitat from 2012 to 2017 (Fukuoka, Japan), overseeing numerous housing and urban development initiatives in 32 countries of the region. Before the current position, he served as the Director at Nishi-Nippon Railroad since 2017.

Task team leaders:

Yuan Xiao (yxiao@worldbank.org)

Wenyan Dong (wdong@worldbank.org)

Team members:

Sihan Mao (smao@worldbank.org)

Xiaona Liang (xliang4@worldbank.org)

Chenming Li (cli5@worldbank.org)

Ziqing Zhang (zzhang15@worldbank.org)