Team

Richard Forster - Managing Director

Richard has been an editor and journalist for 20 years having trained at Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC where he was Group Publisher managing teams in New York, London and Hong Kong. He has written for the Financial Times, Euromoney, Corporate Finance and Project Finance and has launched publications for the Inter American-Development Bank and Asian Development Bank. He is an editorial consultant to UN-Habitat and has also worked on publications for UCLG, OECD and the World Bank.

In 2010, Richard was launch editor for Cities Today, the first global magazine to contain analysis, comment and best practices on sustainable urban development, connecting local governments with public and private sector solutions. In 2015 he led the launch of a series of peer-to-peer meetings for city leaders to increase knowledge sharing and create new models of engagement between cities and other key stakeholders. Cities Today has now hosted over 40 such Leadership Forums in North America, Europe and Latin America through its training and events arm the Cities Today Institute (https://www.cities-institute.com).

Willem Fast - Partnerships Director

Willem joined PFD in 2010 as Director of Strategic Partnerships, and has over 15 years’ experience in working with local governments, the public sector, and bilateral and multilateral organisations. Currently balancing a portfolio of both Global 500 and SME city solution providers, he helps his clients scale their business development with cities and local governments, particularly in Urban Mobility, IoT and Digitalisation, and smart cities.

Willem has held a number of leadership roles at UBM, Autonomy, Hewlett Packard and Oracle. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam, and speaks Dutch, English, German and Spanish.

Jonathan Andrews - Editor

Jonathan focuses on the impact of technology on cities and how this can help city leaders deliver sustainable and resilient communities. He has 15 years’ experience writing on smart city topics including interviewing city government leaders, start-up entrepreneurs and executives from technology vendors. He has a strong interest in new companies that have been launched to address urban challenges. Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Sydney with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations.

Christopher Carey, Mobility Editor

Christopher is a graduate of Queens University Belfast and holds an MA in International Relations and a BA in History and Politics. He previously worked at the EU Council and the Irish Embassy in Abu Dhabi before training as a journalist with News Associates London.

Folkert Leffring - Digital Media Manager

Folkert Leffring is a multilingual marketing professional with over a decade of experience in the international media industry. He focuses on lead generation for public sector vendors through integrated inbound campaigns and has worked with multinationals as well as scale-ups and start-ups.

Folkert holds a Bcom Marcom degree in International Business and Languages from the Utrecht Business School and a Digital Marketing degree from ESIC Business School.

Mak Mengal - Senior Partnerships Manager

Mak has worked on content marketing for blue chip corporates including Siemens, HERE, Mastercard, Deutsche Telekom, EY, Novo Nordisk and Nokia. He brings a wealth of best practices and digital marketing skills to content clients including inbound marketing skills, social media expertise and the use of data analytics, tools which companies routinely employ in their client relationship management. At PFD, Mak assists organisations to deliver their marketing and business development goals through account-based marketing and thought leadership campaigns.

Oliver Hendry - Membership and Community Manager, Cities Today Institute

Oliver is Membership and Community Manager at the Cities Today Institute, the events and training arm of Cities Today. He works closely with city leaders to design programmes and working groups for the Cities Today Institute events. He has strong links with city leaderships with whom he has written reports on workforce development as well as overseeing the launch of city-leader communities. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master’s Degree in History, with a focus on political history.

Manuel Manrique - Research Coordinator

Manuel Manrique studied social communication at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte obtaining a master’s degree from the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo. A trained journalist by profession, he began his career in the editorial of offices of the newspapers, the Folha de São Paulo and the Estado de São Paulo. His excellent relationships with Latin American cities are based on 15 years of work as Editorial & Information Officer based in Rio de Janeiro at the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of UN-Habitat. He is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Bob Bennett - Chair, Cities Today Institute

Bob Bennett is the former Chief Innovation Officer of Kansas City and chairs the Cities Today Institute. A visionary leader responsible for putting Kansas City on the map as a trailblazer in urban innovation, Bob brings insights and a powerful network to PFD to deliver on the goals of our public sector clients.