|
 Each month in 2005, ARS will be introducing its Board members and Associates. This month, we introduce Robert Yaro, President of New York's Regional Plan Association. We also introduce Doug Henton, President of Collaborative Economics and National Coordinator of ARS's John W. Gardner Academy for Regional Stewardship.
 Robert D. Yaro is the President of the Regional Plan Association. Before assuming this role, Mr. Yaro served as RPA's Executive Director from 1990 to 2001. Headquartered in Manhattan, RPA is America's oldest and most distinguished independent metropolitan research and advocacy group. At RPA, Bob Yaro led the five-year effort to prepare RPA's Third Regional Plan, A Region at Risk, which he co-authored in 1996. He chairs The Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, a broad-based coalition of civic groups formed to guide redevelopment in Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Mr. Yaro is currently Practice Professor in City and Regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served on the faculties of Harvard and Columbia Universities.
From 1985 to 1989 Mr. Yaro was Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and founder and Director of the University's Center for Rural Massachusetts. In this role he initiated Growing Smart in Massachusetts, the nation's first smart growth initiative. His 1988 book, Dealing with Change in the Connecticut River Valley received awards from the American Planning Association, the Nation Trust for Historic Preservation and other groups.
From 1976 to 1984 Mr. Yaro served as Chief Planner and then Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. In this capacity he developed and led the state's largest urban revitalization and environmental protection programs, including the 14-city Urban Heritage State Park system. Prior to this he worked as an urban planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, where he worked on the City's waterfront redevelopment program.
He holds a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University and a Bachelors Degree in Urban Studies from Wesleyan University.
He is an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
 Doug Henton has more than 30 years of experience in economic and community development at the national, regional, state, and local levels. Doug is nationally recognized for his work in bringing industry, government, education, research, and community leaders together around specific collaborative projects to improve regional competitiveness.
He serves as national coordinator for the John W. Gardner Academy of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, a national network of leaders from over 40 regions in the United States that shares best practices and promotes innovations on common regional issues.
He was project manager for the start-up of the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, an innovative, results-oriented regional economic development alliance. Doug directed the strategic planning process involving more than 1,200 corporate, community, and public-sector leaders. He was a senior advisor for the Silicon Valley 2010: A Regional Framework for Growing Together. He continues to serve as Joint Venture?s economist, and is the architect of Joint Venture?s annual Index of Silicon Valley.
Doug is a consultant to the California Economic Strategy Panel, California ?s first state economic strategy process linked to industry clusters and regions. He helped launch collaborative regional efforts in Sacramento, and San Diego. He was consultant to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Doug has also advised Chicago Metropolis 2020, the Potomac Conference and Arizona Partnership for a New Economy.
Doug founded Collaborative Economics in July 1993 after a decade as assistant director of SRI International?s Center for Economic Competitiveness. At SRI, Doug directed local strategy projects in diverse regions, including Austin, Texas. He led major state-level strategy development projects in Arizona, Florida, and California. Internationally, Doug directed major projects on the economic future of Hong Kong, the technopolis strategy in Japan, and regional development in China.
With colleagues Kim Walesh and John Melville, Doug has written a book, Grassroots Leaders for the New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities, published by Jossey-Bass in March 1997. Their second book Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America?s Communities published by Jossey-Bass in October 2003.
Doug holds a bachelor?s degree in political science and economics from Yale University and a master of public policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
|
