Richard Florida is the author of The New Urban Crisis (2017), and several best-sellers, including the award-winning The Rise of the Creative Class. He is a researcher and professor, serving as university professor and director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. He is also founder of the Creative Class Group which works closely with companies and governments worldwide.

Principal-In-Charge of urban planning and urban design, working to improve community wellbeing, with public and private clients. With a background in architecture and urban planning, currently developing community plans, large-scale master plans, transit corridors, TODs, and university campuses. Frequent speaker on city-building and community wellbeing.

My role (in fact, my entire career) is about developing healthy, engaged, inclusive and socially cohesive communities, whether defined by our customers, employees or partners. This is what drives me. Always has. Tridel is the largest builder of sustainable condominiums in Canada, creating energy-efficient, healthy places to live. I make sure we focus on more than the "bricks and mortar", to go beyond the physical, and include the social infrastructure that is critical to any successful community. I do this by bringing benefit programs like training, jobs and community engagement to where we build, so our brand is associated with more than the inconvenience of traffic, noise and dust that's traditionally associated with development. As Tridel is a recognized leader in the customer and employee experience, we continually evolve our approach aided by insight and evidence based research. This strategic process, which I oversee, helps us understand what the relevant priorities are of our customers and employees, so we make the biggest impact and best investment of resources while driving a greater value for our customers, employees and the business. High satisfaction and engagement creates loyalty, advocacy, increases productivity/revenue while reducing the cost of employee recruitment and customer acquisition. I helped Tridel achieve 98% customer satisfaction with 97% saying they would buy a Tridel home again. Similarly, 95% of employees have exceptional pride in the company and 93% know their purpose and how they contribute to our shared success. We also enjoy strong family and friend referrals from our customers at over 95%. I have personally helped deliver over 80 communities and 30,000+ homes. While I'm proud of every one, the FIRST community we build is our own. After all, happy employees, create happy customers and successful communities. I love sharing my experiences and what I’ve learned about branding, customer experience and corporate social responsibility as well as people, culture and talent development. Follow or connect with me on Linked In.