International city leaders head to ‘mayor school’

Forty mayors and 80 senior municipal leaders from nine countries and six continents are taking part in this year’s Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a year-long professional management training programme.

Mayors in the seventh cohort include Femke Halsema, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Tory Whanau, Wellington, New Zealand; Karen Bass, Los Angeles, US; Fahad Albuliheshi, Madinah, Saudi Arabia; and José Sarto Nogueira Moreira, Fortaleza, Brazil.

Todd Gloria, Mayor of San Diego, California, took part in a previous year.

“I’ve called the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative ‘Mayor School’ because that’s what it’s been for me,” he said. “The curriculum helps you to learn. The instructors challenge you to grow. The other mayors become your friends. I’m better at my job because of it, and my city is the beneficiary.”

The programme was established in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School to “help close the gap in executive development for the public sector”.

Shared challenges

To kick off their participation, the mayors joined Harvard faculty and management leaders in New York City for a four-day immersive classroom experience.

“This year’s class features a diverse, international group of mayors who are changing their cities and the world, and we’re glad to bring them all together in New York,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and former mayor of New York City. “Mayors face no shortage of urgent challenges right now – from poverty to climate change to public safety. This programme is designed to help build their capacity to lead and empower them to act boldly.“

The core classes include leadership and management, collaboration, innovation and experimentation, and using data to improve decision-making.​ Each city also has the opportunity to focus on improving a key practice over the course of the year.

The introductory week includes a full day on storytelling and helping mayors with “crafting their narrative”.

Impact

Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, said: “I am excited to be a part of this year’s Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

“It is a tremendous privilege for me to lead a great city like Cape Town, but it does come with a lot of responsibility, and an ever-present consideration for me personally – as mayor – is how I can make a greater impact faster. I have come to realise how important it is to take the larger organisation along with me on my journey to improving the lives of everyday citizens.”

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the leadership programme helped the city create its Life Sciences Workforce Initiative. It launched last month and aims to train and employ 1,000 Boston residents by the end of 2025 with a focus on equity and inclusion.

Since 2017, 275 mayors and over 470 senior city leaders have participated in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Other alumni include Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City; Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Secretary of Transportation and former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana; and Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire in the UK.