Vijay Jagannathan comes from the World Bank where he was Sector Manager for infrastructure in the East Asia and Pacific region. He was responsible for an annual lending program of about $5 billion in the urban, water, transport and energy sectors. Vijay has been also associated with the APEC-led green growth and green finance initiatives. He has worked in the infrastructure, environment and urban development sectors in his twenty four years in the Bank. Prior to that he spent 10 years in Indian Administrative Service. Vijay is an economist by training, with a PhD from Boston University. His dissertation on the informal markets for the poor was published by Oxford University Press in 1987 and recognized as one of the “Outstanding Academic Books of the Year” by the American Library Association. He has published extensively on water, urban development, agricultural development and environmental issues. Vijay currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, and has been a consultant with the Green Climate Fund. He is a member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group for Urban Issues, and is working closely with the New Climate Economy initiative. He is advising the China Council for International Cooperation on Climate and Development (CCICED) in its Special Policy Study on “Good City Models under the Concept of Ecological Civilization.” Vijay was elected as Secretary General of CityNet at the 2013 CityNet Seoul Congress. He can be reached at vijay(at)citynet-ap.org.

Dr. Sang Bum Kim worked for the Seoul Metropolitan Government for 30 years and became the city’s vice mayor until his retirement. He was also the president of Seoul Institute, a think-tank of urban solutions for Seoul. Dr. Kim’s expertise includes transportation and regional industry development having been deeply involved in most of Seoul’s major transportation projects like the subway line construction, bus reform, and pedestrianization. Since then, Seoul public transportation system has been one of the most efficient in the world. In 2000, he had participated in the Digital Media City (DMC) project, which is a high-tech media industrial park, comprising 450 media and entertainment and creating 36,000 jobs. He also worked on the Magok Project, which would be the largest research and development park in Korea.
In CityNet, Dr. Kim helps develop several international training programs for its members. Currently, he is a visiting professor/ senior researcher at the University of Seoul where he teaches urban economics and urban solutions. You may contact Dr. Sang Bum Kim at 57sbkim(at)uos.ac.kr.

Aisa Tobing is a City Planner and Senior Advisor to the Governor of Jakarta. She serves as the Chairman of the Climate Change Task Force for Jakarta and as an Expert Staff for Urban and Environmental Management. Aisa has worked for Jakarta Capital City Government since 1977. During this time, she was appointed to lead several agencies within the administration, including serving as the Director of the International Cooperation Bureau, the Director of Information Technology and Communications Management Office, as well as Head of the Environmental Management Division. Aisa received her Bachelor’s degree in City Planning from Bandung Institute of Technology and her Masters from University of Pennsylvania. A strong supporter of sustainable urban development, Aisa Tobing currently serves as a Deputy Secretary General of CityNet.

Geunhyeong Yim is currently serving as CityNet CEO since January 2020. He is responsible in overseeing the overall institutional and program activities of the organization in relation to the sustainable development of cities in Asia-Pacific. He was appointed as Ambassador for International Relations to the Seoul Metropolitan Government in January 2018, a position he held for two years. As a foreign policy adviser to Mayor of Seoul, he advises on the city’s international relations and diplomatic policies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Yim joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after passing the High Diplomatic Service Examination in 1981 and spent multiple years as a diplomat in Europe. He also held the posts of Deputy Director-General and Director-General of European Affairs in succession, and served as an ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark in 2008 and to Hungary in 2014. In 2017, he was granted the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary for his contribution to promoting Korea-Hungary relations. Some of the main areas of his focus are Smart City policies and climate change response, and he believes city-to-city cooperation is essential to resolving the key issues on the global agenda.

Youngmin Chang is the Director of Programs and develops overall programs at CityNet along with the institutional strategy to engage businesses, community groups, and multilateral institutions as strategic partners in identifying practical solutions for sustainable cities. Before she joined CityNet, she had worked for ten years as the Associate Director of a non-profit organization, International Action, in Washington, D.C., which she co-founded and serves as a board member. She was honored to be selected as one of the 40 Under 40 professionals on urban land use by the Urban Land Institute in 2014. She sits on Cities Development Initiative for Asia Stakeholders Forum Expert Group and has led CityNet to be elected to be an Operation Committee Member of Development Alliance Korea. She received her Master’s in International Relations from the University of Virginia. She can be reached at ychang@citynet-ap.org.

Sungkyun Kim has been working for the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) since 2008. Mr. Kim was recently dispatched to CityNet as Director of Operations as of July 2020. He can be reached at dir.operations@citynet-ap.org.

Yunyeong Yang has been working for Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2015 and was recently dispatched to CityNet as Operations Officer. She can be reached at operations@citynet-ap.org.

Prior to joining CityNet, Yookyung worked at the United States Embassy in Seoul to cultivate civic engagement, cultural understanding and strengthen societal resilience by finding practical approaches to shared regional challenges. Some of her responsibilities at CityNet include overall management of CityNet members and assisting fiscally sponsored projects along with the annual audit. She can be reached at membership@citynet-ap.org.

Prior to working in Citynet, Jaime Paulo Mora spent ten years working in a national local government association based in Manila, Philippines. He held various supervisory positions in both regular and foreign-assisted programs and projects that focused on urban development. Some of these include public procurement, disaster risk and resilience, local health development and localizing Millennium Development Goals/ Sustainable Development Goals. He graduated with a journalism degree at the University of Santo Tomas. Mr. Mora has a professional background in development communications, public advocacy, local governance, and urban sociology. In the Citynet, among other tasks, he manages the Citynet Services Program and provides membership services to Philippines and Fiji Citynet members. He can be reached at programs2@citynet-ap.org.

Danbee Lee has a background in International Security and Economics. Prior to joining CityNet, she worked at a research institute based in Seoul to conduct academic research on city revitalization and the role of local entrepreneurship in community building. She graduated with BA in Political Science and Economics, and completed her MA in International Security & Foreign Policy and International Development Cooperation. Some of her responsibilities at CityNet include coordinating with members in several countries and overall coordination of CityNet legislative meetings. She can be reached at danbee@citynet-ap.org.

Hui has a background of Sustainability Science and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Compilation. She obtained a Master of Science in International Cooperation Policy from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Japan) and a Master of Engineering in International Material Flow Management from Hochschule Trier (Germany). She is experienced in working under a multicultural environment with multidisciplinary cooperation. Prior to joining CityNet, she had worked at ICLEI East Asia Secretariat, with a focus on city-scale researches and projects. At CityNet, she supports to implement various capacity building projects and coordinate with members and partners in China. You are more than welcome to reach her at coordinator1@citynet-ap.org (Languages: Chinese, English and Japanese).

Megan obtained a Master of Global Affairs and Policy from Yonsei University, and graduated from the University of British Columbia for her BA with a double major in Psychology and Korean Studies. Prior to joining CityNet, she worked at Yonsei University in the admissions office, where she organized events and spearheaded external communication. At CityNet, she is responsible for partners management, publications, and communication. She can be reached at programs1@citynet-ap.org.

Chris is keenly interested in the workings of cities and facilitating sustainable urban development. Previously, Chris worked at United Nations ESCAP to organize an urban innovation themed startup competition. Chris holds a Master of Korean Studies from Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies and a Bachelor of Psychology from Vassar College. At CityNet, Chris is managing the Urban SDG Knowledge Platform, a joint project with ESCAP and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. He can be reached at sdgplatform@citynet-ap.org.