Professor Samer Bagaeen FRICS MRTPI

Samer’s experience lies in sustainability advisory for local government & municipal capacity building, regional planning and design. He is a trusted advisor and recognised expert on future-proofing cities and skills development for urban resilience. He brings a unique perspective into projects and boards as a resilience practitioner, a project manager, an elected city council member, and a professor working with local government for 20 years building capacity.

Samer is recognised amongst his peers and was elected by the membership to the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Board of Trustees for three years starting in January 2023. He is Chair of the RTPI’s International Committee in 2023 and 2024 and previously served on the RTPI Board in 2016-2017 and on the Town & Country Planning Association Board for the period 2015-2020.

He is also appointed to the following Boards:

• Non-Executive Board Member on the South East (England) Regional Board at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• The Advisory Board for the BAME Planners Network
• The Creative Estuary Advisory Board (Kent & Essex)
• The Real Estate Data Foundation (Academic Advisory Board)

Samer received the Freedom of the City of London in September 2023 and was nominated for the UKREiiF (UK Real Estate Infrastructure & Investment Forum) EDI Champion Award in May 2023.

In a career spanning 30 years started in Jordan, Samer built up a substantial national and global profile. He is a UK Design Council Expert (Specialist, infrastructure resilience) and served as a Mentor on the InfraChallenge for the Global Infrastructure Hub at the G20. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art and of the Royal Geographic Society. He is also a Localis Policy Fellow supporting innovation in local and central government. In Jordan, he was awarded the title of Professor of Architecture & Planning at the University of Jordan in 2016.

As Associate Director (City Relationships) with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities programme, he led and managed senior city professional staff and empowered mayors and city leaders in a dozen of cities to mobilise resources and communities to deliver visions for sustainability and resilience in cities across the EMEA region.

Samer has partnered with the World Economic Forum since 2017, supporting the Cities & Energy systemic efficiency workstream participating in a number of workshops in London and Amsterdam.
At the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London, Samer delivered the Institution’s corporate training on ESG & sustainability for clients such as Generali in Italy for the senior leadership team in corporate real estate and the PIF in Saudi Arabia for the graduate development programme. He has trained both seniors and juniors in business. He chaired the RICS’s flagship conference on sustainable finance in September 2023 at the Institution’s headquarters at Parliament Square in London.

Samer holds a BA in Architecture from University College London (UCL), a Masters of Urban Design in Developing Countries from UCL, and a Diploma in International Cooperation for Development from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. He also holds a Ph.D. in Planning Studies from UCL, an MBA from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He has also undertaken specialist training in Sustainable Finance for Policy Makers from the University of Oxford.

• Urban & climate resilience
• Stakeholder capability & engagement
• Sustainable finance
• Brownfield & cultural-led regeneration regeneration
• Planning policy, strategy & supporting implementation

Full Member, Urban Land Institute (http://uk.uli.org/)
Fellow, RSA (Royal Society of Arts) (https://www.thersa.org/)
FRICS, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (http://www.rics.org/uk/)
FRGS, Royal Geographic Society (http://www.rgs.org/)
MRTPI, Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (http://www.rtpi.org.uk/)
FHEA, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy