Alice Charles
Director for Cities, Planning & Design, Arup,
Alice Charles has more than 20 years’ experience working for the private & public sector in the areas of city & urban planning, real estate, urban development & regeneration, construction, infrastructure, transport, energy, climate change globally. She is currently a Director for Cities, Planning & Design in Arup, which is a leading global sustainable development professional services company. She focuses on cross cutting urban strategies (sustainability, climate change, resilience, mobility) in Europe & globally. She is also the global leader for Arup’s global strategic partnerships with a number of international organisations, Mayoral Networks and Foundations including the World Economic Forum, UN High Level Champions, UN Global Compact, C40, Resilient Cities Network, World Green Building Council, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Earthshot, Stockholm International Water Institute and Resilience Rising. She also sits on a number of Advisory Boards including the UN Habitat Executive Directors Stakeholder Advisory Group Enterprise, she is a member of the SDSN Urban SDG Finance Commission and Chairs its Private Sector Taskforce, she is a Member of the European Commission 100 Intelligent Cities Advisory Board, a Member of the International Telecommunications Union Focus Group on Environmental Efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies and a Member of the World Economic Forum G20 Smart Cities Alliance. She previously led the World Economic Forum's cities & real estate work streams, the production of all city and urban development related content and curation of events at World Economic Forum summits. She was an External Member of the Board, National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) Planning Advisory Committee, Ireland. She was an EU Presidency Officer with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Ireland. She worked for the oppositions Chief Whip in Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament), Ireland. She managed the Dublin office of Jacobs (formerly Colin Buchanan and SKM). She specialised in planning, development and regeneration when working for Avison Young (formerly GVA), London, UK. She has a Master’s in Global Leadership, World Economic Forum, in conjunction with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Cornell Tech, INSEAD, London Business School and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS); Master’s in business administration (MBA), University College Dublin; Postgraduate Diploma in Town and Country Planning, Queens University Belfast; First class Hons Degree in Environmental Planning, Queen’s University Belfast. Chartered Member, Royal Town Planning Institute; Member, Irish Planning Institute and Member of the Academy of Urbanism. Recipient, Irish Echo Irish 40-Under-40 Award 2017 for Irish and Irish Americans who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of work before the age of 40.
