Team
Managing Director
Geoffrey Dobilas is the principal of GD Economics and former Managing Director of GHK Canada. Geoff is an economist with over 20 years of professional experience in planning, economic development and transportation economics. Geoff worked as a research and policy planner with the City of Toronto Planning and Development Department during the 1980s where he was involved with various local economic development issues and initiatives including authoring the Downtown Employment Study. Between 1991 and 1997, he was a professor of economic, industrial and urban geography at the University of Toronto. Since then, Geoff has lead-managed a series of multi-disciplinary projects including the preparation of numerous local economic development strategies, sector specific economic analyses, economic impact assessments, economic feasibility studies, employment forecasting, and master planning and due diligence for transportation infrastructure investment. His clients have included local governments, state/provincial and national governments, other quasi-governmental agencies, boards and commissions, major donors and bi-laterals, port and airport authorities and operators, and investment banks, hedge funds and asset and equity fund managers. This work has taken him to more than 15 countries around the world. In 2011, Geoff left GHK to set up his own practice.
Dr. Larry S. Bourne PhD, FRSC, DES, D.Litt., MCIP, RPP Associate
Larry S. Bourne (PhD, FRSC, DES, D.Litt., MCIP, RPP) is Professor Emeritus of Geography and Planning and past Director of both the Graduate Program in Planning and the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at the University of Toronto. Professor Bourne is currently a senior scholar with the Global Cities Program and has just completed a term as Interim Director of the University’s new Cities Centre. He received a B.A. (Hons.) in Geography from the University of Western Ontario, an M.A. from Alberta, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1966. He has served as consultant to national, provincial and municipal governments and organizations, and to several national and international agencies and foundations. He also chaired an international research group on urban systems and urban policy for the International Geographical Union (IGU) from 1984 to 1992. In recent years he has been actively involved in collaborative research programs on social change, urban development and governance issues through the World Bank, IDRC, SSHRC, The Neptis Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.Professor Bourne is the author/and co-author of over 245 journal articles, books, and professional reports in geography, planning, public policy and urban studies.
Associate
Robin Maggs has over 30 years professional aviation experience gained over a broad range of international assignments. This has included senior posts held at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, as Section Head; a major UK transport consultancy, as Senior Associate; and the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department/Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), as Senior Planning Manager. He is now an independent aviation consultant based in Vancouver, Canada. His experience, covering both major international and small regional airports, is extensive and has included studies in forecasting, market analysis, master and strategic planning, runway and terminal capacity assessment, economic, facility and feasibility assessment, organisational restructuring and policy issues. His clients have included private firms, banks, government departments, airport authorities and international agencies (including the World Bank, IATA, ICAO and DFID).He has represented both the UK and Hong Kong Government at various international committee meetings on aviation matters with, amongst others, IATA, Eurocontrol, ICAO and the People’s Republic of China. His breath of knowledge combined with direct operational experience of airports, airlines, air traffic management and regulatory bodies gives him an extensive and pragmatic insight into the aviation industry.
Associate
John Gladki MCIP RPP has over thirty-five years experience in working with government agencies and private sector organizations on land use and policy planning, urbanregeneration, local economic development, affordable housing, planning approvals, strategic planning and management. John worked as a senior director at the City of Toronto’s Planning and Development Department where he was responsible for developing the City’s comprehensive Zoning Bylaw and Official Plan. Prior to Gladki Planning Associates, he worked at GHK International (Canada) Ltd. on preparing secondary plans, affordable housing, development approvals, regional growth studies, development trend analysis, urban regeneration initiatives, economic analysis and strategy development. John recently managed the preparation and implementation of the Regent Park Revitalization Plan and zoning bylaw, for Canada’s largest public housing project located in downtown Toronto which received the Canadian Institute of Planners Award of Excellence. He was also recently responsible for developing urban planning, zoning and regeneration strategies for Toronto’s Downtown Waterfront including the zoning bylaw for the Keating Channel Precinct. He has been extensively involved in public participation processes and is a trained and experienced practitioner of group facilitation. John has also worked on numerous urban and regional strategic planning and economic development initiatives in cities in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Latin America. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a Registered Professional Planner.
Associate
E T Laing has worked for over thirty years as a maritime transport economist. He has been independent for the last twenty-five years. The projects on which he has worked have been for private firms, banks, government departments, international agencies (including World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, EBRD, Overseas Development Administration, US AID and Danida), local government organisations and port trusts. His particular areas of specialisations include economic evaluation, privatisation, traffic forecasting, financial analysis, regulatory policy, pricing, container transport, and shipping and port operations. He has worked in over 70 countries.
Associate
Colin Lizieri is Grosvenor Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College. Before joining Cambridge, he was Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of Reading. Colin has some thirty years experience in real estate research and consultancy, has advised international bodies, government, professional and private organisations on real estate investment and has published widely on real estate finance, investment and office market dynamics. His latest book, Towers of Capital (Blackwell-Wiley), examines the linkages between international capital flows, financial crises, and the office markets of major global cities. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford, a doctorate from the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Associate
Dr. Nicholas Miles is an Associate of GD Economics and an economic planner with many years’ experience assisting governments design and implement regional and city economic development strategies. His experience is global. Dr Miles has worked in advanced economies (e.g., Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden and the UK), transitional and high performing economies (e.g., China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the UEA) and in some of the least developed nations (e.g. Kenya, Nepal and Nigeria). Between 2006 and 2008 Dr Miles was the Executive Director of the Oxford to Cambridge (O2C) Arc, where he worked with government and private sector stakeholders to build one of Europe’s premier knowledge economies in the area stretching between and including Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Dr Miles was responsible for designing the economic development delivery model for the area and in particular, analyzing the status and potential of the innovation economy of the O2C Arc area and, devising in collaboration with partners, an investment program for the Global Medical Excellence Cluster (Oxford, Cambridge, London and Southampton). Dr Miles has worked with a number of national and local governments and a range of international lending agencies (e.g., Asian Development Bank, DFID, EBRD, European Commission, UN, World Bank). He has also worked for a number of private sector clients undertaking investment appraisals of major developments and business support programs. Nicholas will provide specialist knowledge of best practices in economic development service delivery, bringing his international experience to the table for discussion.
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