WHO WE ARE
Mejor Ciudad is made up of a Board of Directors, an Advisory Board, and a work team of the best professional and human standards. Get to know us!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Mejor Ciudad Board of Directors is made up of professionals with track records at the highest level both nationally and internationally, who have been transcendental for their leadership, their vision, and for the impact that their achievements have reached.

Manuel Perló Cohen
Dr. Perló Cohen is currently a Senior Researcher for the UNAM Institute of Social Research. He has more than 30 years of experience, and his vast and invaluable knowledge in urban policies, economic development, and urban and regional studies make him a notable figure for urbanism in Mexico and internationally. Dr. Perló is an economist from the UNAM and Doctor in urban-regional planning from the University of California-Berkeley. Currently, he is a graduate professor in Urbanism and in Political and Social Sciences at the UNAM, at the Universities of California-Berkeley, Stanford, Javeriana, and Autonomous Metropolitan- Xochimilco. He directed the University Program for Studies on of the City-UNAM from 2000 to 2009. Author of 9 books, 62 book chapters, 36 articles in specialized publications, and numerous public-interest articles in national print media.

Paulina Campos Villaseñor
Paulina is the Associate Academic Dean of the Monterrey Tech School of Social Sciences and Government. Prior to her current position, she was the director of Fundación Hogares, an organization that promotes community development through urban community interventions. In 2015, Fundación Hogares received the National Urban Development Award and its projects have benefited more than 700,000 inhabitants. Paulina was recognized as a member of Ashoka and was selected as a member of the second generation of public entrepreneurs for the Entrepreneurship and Transformation Laboratory (LET) of the ITESM
Paulina is an Economist from the ITAM and master’s in public policy from Harvard University. She is a member of the Mexico State Private Assistance Council Board, in which she represents more than 100 private assistance social development institutions and is a member of the Women Leaders for Housing Board.

Enrique Norten
Enrique is an architect from the Iberoamerican University and has a master’s in Architecture from Cornell University in 1980. In 1986, he founded TEN Arquitectos in Mexico City, beginning a lifetime commitment to architecture and design.
Enrique has given conferences all over the world and has participated in numerous international panels and adjudication committees. Enrique is the Miller Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. He has worked with the University of Texas in Austin, University of Michigan, and Harvard University. He was a professor of architecture at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City and has been a guest professor at Cornell University, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, Sci Arc-, Rice University, and Columbia and Yale Universities.
Enrique’s projects have been recognized with the most prestigious awards and his work has been presented in various international expositions. He is a member of the board at the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and the Americas Society / Council of the Americas.

Sara Topelson de Grinberg
Sara is an authority in urban development and housing in Mexico City; she is an architect from the national University of Mexico (UNAM). She was president of the International Architects Union (UIA) between 1996 and 1999. Sara is a member of the Mexican Architecture Academy. In addition to her experience in the private sector as a partner of Grinberg & Topelson, Sara has been a professor at Anáhuac University for more than 40 years. She has been a Director of Architecture for the National Fine Arts Institute of Mexico (2001-2003), Managing Director of Urban Development for the municipality of Huixquiluca (2003-2004), and Managing Director of Urban Development for the Miguel Hidalgo District (2006-2007). Currently, she coordinates the Housing Documentation and Research Center (CIDOC).

Miquel Adrià
Miquel Adrià is a bachelor’s in architecture from the Barcelona Higher Technical School of Architecture. He has lived in Mexico since 2004, when he was in charge of the restoration of the Hotel de Cortés, a Novo-Hispanic Baroque building located in the city center of Mexico City
He is in the founder and is currently the director of the Arquine magazine (independent, critical, quarterly publication on architecture and design, dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary architectural culture), editor, writer-critic, and principal organizer of the International Architecture Festival and Ciudad Mextrópoli.
Miquel has also been a teacher in different urbanism schools. In addition to being a panelist and the current director of Master’s programs in the City Center of Mexico City school.
He has been a juror for various international awards and has published more than 30 books on architects and Iberoamerican architecture.

Onésimo Flores Dewey
Onésimo is a professor of planning and urban design and is the principal research associate for the recently created GSD Urban Transportation Transformation initiative: the role of political leadership. He has a doctorate in Urban Planning from MIT (2013); a master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2007); and is a bachelor’s in law from the Iberoamerican University, Mexico City (2001).

Victor Manuel Requejo
Requejo is the CEO of the Banco Inmobiliario Mexicano, S.A. He studied a bachelor’s degree in Law at the national autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). After working in a lawyers’ office, he worked at the Banco del Ejército (Banjército), then he worked at Bancomer as an office manager and subsequently collaborated at the Banco del Atlántico, is where he experienced the bank’s nationalization on September 1, 1982, in the José López Portillo administration.
In 1994 he founded Hipotecaria Nacional, the most important Limited-Purpose Financial Corporation (Sofol) of its type.

Gene Towle
Gene is a Mechanical Engineer with a master’s in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration from Cornell University in New York. He participated in the course “Birth of Giants” for the development of high growth companies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the Director of Marketing for Apple Mexico (1984-1987).
Gene has been a Managing Partner of Softec since 1998, a company dedicated to research of the real estate sector. Additionally, he is the founder of several companies in the real estate and high technology sectors, among which include Hipotecaria Su Casita and Mac Zone de México. He is also been coordinator of the certificate in real estate businesses given by the Iberoamerican University. He has been a professor of Real Estate Marketing at the ITAM since 1996 and at the Anáhuac University since 1992.

Pascal Beltran del Rio
Pascal is a bachelor’s in journalism and Collective Communication from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has won twice the Mexico National Journalism Award in the interview category, in the 2003 and 2007 editions. Currently, he is the editorial director of the Excélsior newspaper.
He has worked at the magazine Proceso, at La Revista, and has a served as politics editor for the newspaper El Economista. He has also been a news anchor for “Antena Radio Primera Emisión" of the Mexican Radio Institute (IMER), has been a commentator for the channels Radio Trece, Radio Fórmula, and Imagen. He has also been an anchor for television programs, at CadenaTres, where he currently does interviews for the segment “La Silla de Excélsior."
Pascal has been a correspondent in the city of Washington, D.C. and was twice a special correspondent in Central Asia and the Middle East, where he covered the repercussions of the September 2001 terrorist attacks and the Iraq invasion. He has been a correspondent in Brazil, during the October 2010 presidential elections, in which Dilma Rousseff was triumphant, and in Libya, where he covered the rebellion against the Muammar Gadhafi regime, in March 2001. He has published a large number of books and texts, which include Michoacán and Ni un paso atrás.
Beltrán del Río has also been a journalism professor at the Iberoamerican University and has given several conferences at academic institutions in Mexico and abroad, such as the UNAM and the Universities of Chicago and Texas.

Ignacio Kunz
Ignacio Kunz is a Researcher for the Research Center in Architecture, Urbanism, and Landscape of the UNAM School of Architecture. He is an authority in issues of urban development planning and institutions, the real estate market, and urban restoration and instruments of urban development management. He is a geographer with a master’s in planning and doctorate in urbanism. He has been a guest researcher and professor at the most prestigious universities in urban development, such as the Center for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He is a member of the Graduate Program (doctorate) Teaching Committee in Geography and in Urbanism at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His lines of research are urban structures, functions, activities, and hierarchy; planning, local governments, metropolitan and regional coordination; planning and urban policy; urban processes, public space, and citizenship and housing, public assets, and urban soil. He is the author of more than 70 publications and of various consulting studies in urban, real estate, and planning instrument issues.

José Shabot

Yuri Zagorin
Yuri is an architect from the Iberoamerican University (UIA), graduated with honors in 1994. He studied a master’s in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University, New York, in 1997, and has been a professor of projects at the Iberoamerican University.
He is a Founding and Managing Partner of ZD+A, a real estate developer that is concerned with integrating profitability and cost efficiency in its projects, in addition to caring for the construction details to achieve quality projects and minimizing environmental impact for Mexico City. One of his greatest interests is residential and social interest housing, therefore he has been involved in this issue responsibly researching to reactivate urban zones and stimulate natural and human urban growth.
He is a member of the College of Architects of Mexico (CAM), Urban Land Institute, and the National Chamber of Housing Developers (CANADEVI), among other associations.
ADVISORY BOARD
The Mejor Ciudad Advisory Board is made up of a multidisciplinary and multigenerational group that shares both passion for Mexico City and its commitment for Mejor Ciudad to achieve consolidating itself and maintaining itself as a catalyzing vehicle for sustainable and transformative solutions for its inhabitants.
WORK TEAM
We are passionate, integral, and committed to our City. We have dedicated a great part of our lives to the understanding, development, and improvement of cities at the global level. Additionally, we know project management and implementation methodologies in depth.