The following are the panelists:

	Songsu Choi Lead Urban Economist: South Asia Mr. Songsu Choi is currently Lead Urban Economist, South Asia Region vice presidency of the World Bank, based in Washington, DC. His recent activities include leading the Bank’s flagship activity to help the formulation of a Mumbai Transformation Action Plan at the request of the Prime Minister. This activity has contributed to several significant reforms in policy and regulations governing the development of Mumbai, as well as the the World Bank leaders’ pledge of $6 billion financing for Mumbai’s civic infrastructure. This is his second tour of duty on India. His first involvement in India was between 1987 and 91 when he first joined the Bank and managed, among others, a successful World Bank loan operation for HDFC, when it was a young housing finance institution. At the time Mr. Choi also started working on China, and moved to work full time on China until 2005. There he led many large and complex operations in urban housing, environment, and infrastructure; provided advisory notes to the top Chinese leadership on significant housing and urban development policy issues; and served as the World Bank’s China urban sector coordinator. He started his career at home in the Korean government, participating in or leading the planning of large industrial and urban development projects. He holds a Ph.D. degree from MIT in urban studies with economics focus. Top
	Dennis Pieperz Dennis Pieprz is Sasaki’s president and plays a leading role in the firm’s urban design practice. His 25 years of national and international experience encompass a diverse range of project types that include design for urban districts, new communities, campus environments, and waterfront regeneration projects. Educated at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (with Distinction and Thesis prize) and the University of Toronto School of Architecture (with Honors), Dennis works with interdisciplinary teams and a critical understanding of the forces that shape contemporary cities. He is currently working in China, Singapore, Vietnam, and Abu Dhabi. In India, Dennis is working on a number of projects ranging from a new community district in Gurgaon to a new city of 130 million square feet near Mumbai. He led the design effort for Sasaki's first-place-prize-winning Olympic Green - the urban design plan for the main site of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was the Design Principal for Penn Connects: A Vision Plan for the University of Pennsylvania, which won a 2007 Honor Award in Planning and Urban Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects and SouthWorks, Chicago, which won a 2009 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Urban Design. His design leadership has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Progressive Architecture Awards, The Waterfront Center, The Boston Society of Architects and The Boston Society of Landscape Architects. He has served on numerous international juries and lectured widely at universities and conferences. Top
	David A. Smith Founder, Affordable Housing Institute David A. Smith (dsmith@affordablehousinginstitute.org) is the founder of the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI; www.affordablehousinginstitute.org), a non-profit international consultancy specializing in affordable housing program design and development, financial innovation, stakeholder capacity-building, best practice dissemination, and information outreach. A 1975 Harvard College graduate, David uniquely combines the roles of practitioner and theoretician, participant and policymaker: - International housing finance policy advisor/ program developer. Housing finance program development engagements throughout the world, including: - Egypt. Specialist consultant on strategy and structure of Guarantee Subsidy Fund set up by the government to promote access to housing finance and subsidies. - Kenya. Lead consultant to Ministry of Lands and Housing on the design of a program for slum upgrading in Kibera, Nairobi, to lever private funding with available public resources. - US/ Italy. Member of core team from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, for the Bellagio Housing Conference, which brought together senior government and private sector leaders from four developing countries -- Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand. Led to the landmark Bellagio Housing Declaration: http://www.hfgateway.org/bellagio. - South Africa. Principal consultant to the Low Income Housing Working Group of the Banking Council implementing the Financial Sector Charter, which among other things commits upwards of R75 billion into four sectors, including affordable housing. - UK. Lead program designer and advocate for a proposed (not enacted) Housing And Regeneration Tax (HART) Credit (www.hartcredit.org.uk), modeled on and improved from US best practice tax credits for housing production. - Ireland. Conceptualization and preliminary design for 'soft debt' appropriated financial incentives to create key worker affordable rental housing in Dublin's regenerating downtown. - Policy innovator and program developer. Staff consultant to the Congressionally selected Millennial Housing Commission (www.mhc.gov). - Program analyst/ advisor. Prolific author, sought-after speaker or symposium co-chair (more than 50 events) on affordable housing issues. Testified before Congress on many occasions, and has provided studies/ concept paper/ advice to Congress and many Federal entities. - Educator and advocate. Featured speaker at national conferences in the UK, South Africa, US, and Canada (World Urban Forum). - Successful businessman. Founder of Recapitalization Advisors, Inc. (www.recapadvisors.com), today a fifteen-person firm that has closed more than 365 transactions on more than 45,000 apartments with more than $1.5 billion in value. Clients include Federal and state government agencies, non-profit and for-profit owners and acquirers of affordable housing. Top
	Abha Joshi-Ghani (Moderator) Manager, Urban Development Department, World Bank Abha Joshi-Ghani is Manager, Urban Development, in the Finance, Economics and Urban Development Department of the World Bank. She oversees the World Bank's work on Urban Policy and the Knowledge and Learning practice of the Bank in the Urban Sector. Her Department provides policy and operational advice to the Bank?s Regional departments and clients on key urban themes such as urban housing and land, urban planning, management and municipal finance, urban environment, cities and climate change, urban poverty, cultural heritage and sustainable tourism development and local and city economic development. She is also leading the work on the Bank?s Urban Strategy. Ms. Joshi-Ghani joined the World Bank in 1992 and has worked primarily on infrastructure finance and urban development. Her experience in the Bank includes countries in South Asia, Africa, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa. She holds an M.Phil from Oxford University, UK. Top