OnDemand Trend Report Panel Discussion (18 Sept): Exploring digital twins and the metaverse for smart cities

Jason Shuster

Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer, BizzTech

Jason Shuster is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at BizzTech. Jason earned his bachelor’s in business management from Brigham Young University’s Idaho campus and then a Masters of Finance degree from the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business. After years of owning and operating several insurance and financial services businesses, Jason launched his career in tech and gaming by Co-Founding Bad Panda Games – a game studio in Austin, TX, and then BizzTech.

Jason has a strong background in leadership, strategy, management, Finance, and Business development across several industries.

Jason is also an Eagle Scout, and when he is not working, he spends most of his time with his family (his wife, three children, and dog), reading, engaging in athletics, playing board games, or playing golf.

Dorothea Manou

Solution Manager, Cities & Urban Infrastructure, Bentley Systems

Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and a Master’s in Geomatics, GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques, Dorothea had been working as a GIS Engineer and Consultant before joining Bentley 5 years ago. As an Industry Advisor for Cities Digital Twin Solutions at Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering company, Dorothea works alongside Bentley users, partners and industry experts to help enable cities to adopt digital twin technologies to become more resilient and sustainable. With over 15 years’ experience in the software industry supporting infrastructure engineering, Dorothea’s current focus is interoperable digital twin solutions connecting geospatial, AI and information management to support collaborative planning and situational intelligence for better decision making for city infrastructure.

Ali Nicholl

Data and Digital Strategic Engagements Director, Connected Places Catapult

Ali serves as the Data and Digital Strategic Engagements Director at Connected Places Catapult where he is accelerating innovation and delivering meaningful change.

Before this, Ali was part of the founding team at IOTICS, the game-changing start-up that transformed how the world uses and shares data. As part of the leadership team he was responsible for driving awareness, acceptance and adoption of a new approach to delivering flourishing systems and services.

Ali’s passion is liberating the creative potential of communities of individuals, organisations and enterprises through safe secure interactions. Whether creating new services or tackling global crises the problem isn’t a lack of data, collectively we are awash with data. The challenge is access and security.

Ernesto Faubel

Head of Smart City & Data Management Department, Municipality of Valencia

Ernesto Faubel-Cubells has been the IT Project Leader in the Municipality of Valencia since 1994, holding different levels of responsibility. Currently, Head of Smart City Office, since September 2022.  

 
Since December 2017, Ernesto was the Project Coordinator of MAtchUP European SSC-01 project and from January 2023, the Coordinator of the South supernode of Citcom.ai (TEF project for Artificial Intelligence). Representative of the City of Valencia in different international networks/initiatives (Scalable Cities, Living-in.eu, U4SSC, RECI). In U4SSC, he was co-chair of the Thematic group on Urban Platforms and part-time teacher at UPV, from 1996 to 2019. 

Valerie Chang

Managing Director, Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners

Valerie Chang, Managing Director, leads partnership relations and new member outreach for Curiosity Lab. In her role, Valerie manages day-to-day correspondence, builds relationships with current and potential partners and recruits startups to become members of Curiosity Lab to test, demonstrate and/or develop their technologies. She also represents Curiosity Lab at local, regional, national and international conferences. Previously Valerie managed the day-to-day operations of Curiosity Lab’s Innovation Center and Curiosity Lab events.

She brings 7 years of experience in marketing, digital marketing, management and customer service. Valerie graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Marketing and a New Media certificate. As a Georgia Native, Valerie is passionate about supporting local startups and businesses.

Luke Antoniou
Senior Editor, SmartCitiesWorld

Luke has been reporting on the implementation of smart technologies that benefit citizens and the public sector since 2017.

He has a particularly keen interest in smart and sustainable mobility and its role in influencing the decisions of urban planners, citizens and governments alike.

As rapid urbanisation continues, he keeps his finger on the pulse of the myriad urban challenges facing local and central governments, making new connections in the public and private sectors and finding new angles from which to cover the latest smart city developments around the world.