Rui Barros joined WeWork in April 2016 as SVP of Global Operations, utilizing his nearly three decades of hospitality experience to serve as a center of excellence and introduce best practices for WeWork’s space, community and services globally. In his current role as Head of Tri-State, Barros oversees all aspects of the company’s fast-growing business for WeWork’s largest market – including management, sales, operations, marketing, and more for WeWork’s 40 buildings and tens of thousands of members across New York City.

Dr. Jack Chu comes from Taiwan as a participant in the Robert M. Immerman Professional Fellows program as a fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is a graduate of National Taiwan University (NTU), where he majored in civil engineering; he also earned an Master of C.E. and Eng. Doctor from NTU. Currently he is also employed at the Taipei Water Department of the Taipei City Government of Taiwan (R.O.C).

Brad Ferguson is the President & CEO of Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, responsible for ensuring Edmonton and the Capital Region consistently outperform every economic jurisdiction in North America for the next 20 years.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be hearing from Andy Lee, Technology Investment Director with the state of Victoria, Australia. ICF's Lou Zacharilla spoke with Andy at Silicon Harlem’s 4th Annual Next Gen Tech Conference in New York City during a panel discussion also featuring Brad Ferguson from the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation, Dr. Jack Chu from the Weatherhead East Asian Instutute, and Rui Barros of WeWork. While we'll be featuring each of them in coming episodes, we started with Andy Lee because much of our discussion surrounds Melbourne, our current reigning Intelligent Community of the Year for 2017. We'll be hearing from him why collaboration really is key in developing an intelligent community.

ICF's Lou Zacharilla interviews Harout Chitilian about Top7 Intelligent Community Montreal.

ICF's Lou Zacharilla interviews Jennifer Keesmaat about Toronto, the 2014 Intelligent Community of the Year.

ICF's Robert Bell interviews Marianne Archibald, Malcolm Inglis and Annette Main about Smart21 Intelligent Community Whanganui.