Richard Florida

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading urbanists. Florida is an entrepreneur and the founder of the Creative Class Group which works closely with companies and governments worldwide. 

Florida graduated from Rutgers College in 1979 with a B.A. in political science, also he studied urban planning in Columbia University (M.Phil. in 1984 and Ph.D. in 1986). Prior to joining George Mason University's School of Public Policy, where he spent two years, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh from 1987 to 2005. Moreover, Florida has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Florida is best known for his concept of the creative class and its implications for urban regeneration. This idea was expressed in Florida's best-selling books “The Rise of the Creative Class” (2002) and later published a book focusing on the issues surrounding urban renewal and talent migration, titled “Who's Your City?” (2008).

Florida is a researcher and professor, serving as University Professor and Director of Cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, a Distinguished Fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, Visiting Fellow at Florida International University and Lead Researcher, Project Strategy Director for the FIU Miami Urban Future Initiative. 

Also, Florida serves as senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for CityLab. 

A 2013 MIT study named him the world’s most influential thought leader, TIME magazine recognized his Twitter feed as one of the 140 most influential in the world. 

Florida is a writer and journalist, having penned several global best sellers, including “The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It” (2017), “The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity” (2010).