Alice Charles leads the Cities and Real Estate workstreams at the World Economic Forum. This includes the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, the Future of Real Estate, co-leading the Net Zero Carbon Cities: An integrated approach initiative and the Biodiverse Cities initiative, the production of all cities and real estate related content and events at World Economic Forum Summits (including Davos).
She is also a Member of the European Commission Intelligent Cities Advisory Board, a Member of the UN Habitat Stakeholder Advisory Group, a Member of the Commission for Innovation and Inclusive Growth for the City of Belfast, a Member of the Mayors’ Global Council for the City of Buenos Aires, a member of the Visiting Committee of the Senseable City Lab, MIT, a Member of the Urban Leadership Council (ULC) for the Coalition for Urban Transitions, Jury Member of the WWF One Planet City Challenge and a Jury Member of the Real Play City Challenge.
She has nineteen years’ experience working in the areas of cities, urban development, town planning, real estate, infrastructure, environment, climate change and public policy globally. She was previously an External Board Member of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), Ireland Planning Advisory Committee from 2010 to November 2020. In addition, she previously worked for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (now called the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government), Ireland, Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament), Ireland, Jacobs Engineering (formerly SKM Colin Buchanan) and Avison Young (formerly GVA), London, UK.
She has a Masters in Global Leadership through the 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), a Master’s in Business Administration from University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, a Postgraduate Diploma in Town and Country Planning from Queens University Belfast and a 1st Class Honours Degree in Environmental Planning from Queen’s University Belfast. She is a Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a Member of the Irish Planning Institute. In 2017 she was awarded the Irish Echo 40 under 40 Award, which recognizes outstanding global contributions of Irish and Irish Americans, before reaching the age of 40.