ULI Curtis Infrastructure Initiative is delighted to announce the following speakers at the Tuesday, May 16, ULI Infrastructure Forum in Toronto, Canada, which is generously supported by ULI Life Trustee, James J. Curtis III, former ULI Foundation Chairman. Speakers include industry leaders and subject matter experts in the field of transit-oriented communities, infrastructure, leadership, and real estate asset conversions.

Register here to ULI Infrastructure Forum: Building 15 Minute Communities Leadership Strategies, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM, at Arcadis IBI Group Office, 55 St Clair Avenue West, Toronto, Canada. Programs include action focused strategies presentations, leadership workshop, and presentation of the ULI Curtis Infrastructure Report.

Click here to view the program agenda!

Speaker Lineup

Dr. Morteza Farajian Executive Director, Build America Bureau Dr. Morteza Farajian has served as a senior executive leading the Build America Bureau at USDOT (the Bureau) since April 2019. He is responsible for credit programs and loan guarantees with approximately $30 billion in the existing portfolio and nearly $100 billion in available lending capacity. The Bureau also has the authority to allocate up to $30 billion in tax-exempt private activity bonds that support multimodal transportation infrastructure. Through various technical assistance grant programs, the Bureau assists project sponsors in building capacity to analyze and utilize innovative financing and project delivery solutions such as Public-Private Partnerships (P3). Prior to this position, Dr. Farajian served as acting Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Director of Public-Private Partnerships (P3) Office in Virginia, one of the leading P3 programs in the nation with over $14 billion in successfully delivered projects. Under his leadership, the P3 program in Virginia was reformed to promote competition, engage stakeholders and increase accountability. Dr. Farajian is also an entrepreneur who has co-founded a crowdfunding platform that creates wealth within the community by offering the opportunity to small and disadvantaged investors to invest alongside larger investors and institutional funds in infrastructure projects in their communities. He received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in Project Management from the University of Maryland. He also has a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering.
Morrigan McGregor,  Senior Vice President of Energy Planning and Development, Enwave Morrigan McGregor is Senior Vice President of Energy Planning and Development at Enwave, responsible for overseeing the community energy planning and capital deployment teams. Morrigan has held progressively senior roles in the utility industry, leading project planning, development, capital projects, operations and management in the energy, water and wastewater fields, including the assessment and development of district energy systems across North America. Morrigan holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of Guelph, a Master of Science in Environmental Management and Policy from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University in Sweden and is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.
Sameer Dhalla,  Director of Development and Engineering Services, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority Sameer Dhalla is the Director of Development and Engineering Services at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). He is a professional engineer with over 25 years of experience in both the private and public sector. At the TRCA, Sameer provides leadership to an integrated team of engineers, planners and scientists who utilize watershed management and municipal planning to protect our communities from flooding and erosion, safeguard our water resources and create complete communities that integrate nature and the built environment. Sameer is currently overseeing numerous projects in flood management, stormwater management, green infrastructure, watershed planning and monitoring. Some of the projects Sameer and his team are currently working on include large scale flood remediation initiatives in the Greater Toronto Area and the implementation of a state-of-the-art real time flood forecasting and warning system. Sameer also provides engineering and scientific expertise in the development of guidelines and policies and has represented TRCA as an expert witness in stormwater management and flood management at various tribunals. He is often asked to provide both strategic and technical advice on water resources management and flooding to all levels of government and Conservation Authorities.
Paul Stevens,  Senior Principal, ZAS Architects Paul Stevens is a Senior Principal with ZAS Architects and co-heads the Toronto studio overseeing all projects in Canada.  He was the Principal in Charge for the multi-award-winning Canoe Landing Community Campus in the Fort York neighborhood of Toronto.  This project has been widely acclaimed as a successful city building partnership in one of Canada’s highest density “vertical” communities.  Paul’s commitment to building strong Toronto neighborhoods is best exemplified by the brownfield development of River City, a carbon neutral, LEED Gold residential development in Corktown. He is currently leading the ZAS architectural team responsible for the revitalization of the Public Realm at Ontario Place, one of the City’s most anticipated and closely watched civic projects under design development. Other notable work includes the University of Toronto’s Instructional Centre 2, a 21,000 square meter campus defining hub that is currently under construction, and targeting Toronto Green Standard, version 3. His commitment to sustainability is unwavering in the work he has produced as well as the professional development participation of Passive House, Zero Carbon Design and Mass Timber Low Carbon initiatives. His project work has appeared in over 100 different print and media outlets ranging from the New York Times to Monocle. Along with practicing architectural design, Paul maintains an active connection with various Universities and Colleges, working with undergraduate, post graduate and foreign trained students.
Jim Fisher,  Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management Jim Fisher is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and is a former Vice-Dean and holder of the Marcel Desautel Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. He developed the first leadership course at the school and has taught it for over 25 years. Jim has an MBA, High Distinction, Baker Scholar at the Harvard Business School. After several decades in the business world as a management consultant and food industry executive, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Toronto. Jim teaches courses in leadership, strategy and organization design in MBA programs and in Executive Development Programs for managers in the private and public sectors. He has received many teaching awards including being voted “Teacher of the Year” by MBA and EMBA classes six different times. His book, “The Thoughtful Leader: An Integrative Model of Leadership” published by UofT Press, offers a fresh and forward thinking framework that allows active and emerging leaders to be better prepared to live as a leader day to day. In order to successfully meet the challenges of a fast changing world, leaders can no longer choose between managing, directing or engaging. The thoughtful leader is someone who simultaneously, consistently and coherently manages, directs and engages their followers. The framework provides a way for anyone who is motivated to lead, has the courage to act and is willing to think about their actions to become more effective.
Yvonne Yeung, ULI Curtis Infrastructure Fellow, CEO, SDG Strategies Yvonne Yeung is a professional planner, urban designer, landscape architect, leadership in energy and environmental design accredited professional, and a project management professional. She has over 23 years of experience in public, private, and non-profit sectors delivering award-winning transit-oriented communities worldwide. Specialized in team building, organizational strategy, large-scale transformation, and cross-sector implementation, Yvonne is the recipient of the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management MBA Award, the American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award, and numerous industry planning and design awards. Appointed as ULI Curtis Infrastructure Fellow, she authors the ‘15 Minute Communities: A Leadership Guide.’ A practical guide for leaders to have 15-minute impactful conversations on building 15 Minute Communities. With community-scale illustrations backed by actionable decisions at different stages. Leveraging infrastructure and real estate development to create walkable, transit-oriented, complete communities. Giving a focus for leaders to set agenda, ask the right questions, seize opportunities, and reshape our next 100 years of city-building. The report will be released at the Infrastructure Forum at ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto in May. Appointed as vice-chair of the ULI SDRC Product Council, ULI Toronto Advisory Board Member, and ULI WLI Champions, Yvonne founded the “ULI Getting to Transit Oriented Communities Initiative,” leading strategic collaborations across global cities. Yvonne is the CEO of SDG Strategies, a global strategy consulting firm based in Canada.
Erich Dohrer,  Principal, Arcadis Inc. Erich Dohrer leads the planning and urban design studio in CallisonRTKL’s Chicago office. Erich’s 20 year career has focused on the challenges associated with mixed-use and walkable urban development with a perspective of balancing creativity with economic feasibility for private developers and public agencies. His experience facilitating strategic planning studies range from entitlement services to detailed design touches all aspects of the master planning process. In recent years Mr. Dohrer has focused his attention on reimagining large, single use developments to include more community-oriented, walkable, and diverse uses. This work has touched on corporate office parks, regional shopping malls, sports/entertainment venues, and hospital campuses.
Eric Tao, Managing Partner, L37 Partners, San Francisco Director, SPUR Eric Tao is a managing partner at L37 Partners and managing principal at AGI. He has 20-years of experience in the real estate industry and has led the acquisition, entitlement, financing, development and disposition of over 1,500 multifamily residential units in the San Francisco Bay Area with a focus on transit oriented urban infill projects. AGI Avant was formed in 2006 to manage multifamily development investments for CalPERS. At AGI, Tao has guided the development of nearly 1,000 new housing units in the emerging San Francisco SoMa, Dogpatch and Mid-Market districts. At L37, he is currently leading housing projects for 1,200+ new transit-oriented infill projects in South SF and San Francisco. Eric is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, CA and received his Juris Doctorate from UC Hastings College of Law.