Eve Picker’s expertise in inner city redevelopment and regeneration has earned her broad recognition both in the Pittsburgh community at large and nationally. She has even been called a local ‘folk hero’. Committed to good design, her work consistently aims to make a positive contribution to the public realm with every project.
Eve has a background as an architect, city planner, urban designer, real estate developer, economic development strategist, publisher (founding publisher of Pop City), and is widely known for co-founding a provocative public forum for urban issues now in its third year. All of these have provided her with a rich understanding of how cities work, how urban neighborhoods can be revitalized, what policies are needed to do so, and the unique marketing that creates the buzz necessary for regeneration. With cityLAB, her first non-profit venture, Eve is turning her passion for cities to broader, city-wide revitalization issues.
Since 2007, Audrey Russo has been serving the technology business sector for Southwestern PA as President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Tech Council (PTC), the oldest (1983) and largest technology trade association in all of North America. In order to ensure the original vision of a vital innovation and technology ecosystem, Audrey has used her role to facilitate strong interaction across all business sectors of the regional economy who will only succeed and grow through technology innovation and commercialization. With a background in information technology, operations and finance, Audrey previously worked for large multi-national Fortune 500 companies (Alcoa, Reynolds Metals), as well as at MAYA Design, and in an adjunct faculty and project role at Virginia Commonwealth University. Audrey believes that vital cities are the moral imperative in achieving competitive, diverse and vibrant economies, and the complexity of Pittsburgh’s physical, literal and metaphorical terrain, has been added to her list of loves over the past ten years.
Donald F. Smith is president of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC), one of the region’s best known economic development agencies. Don’s career in economic development began with the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, and the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce as lead analyst on the state's economic development strategy. After receiving his PhD on research related to venture capital, technological innovation and patterns of Japanese investment in the U.S., he worked at RAND's Critical Technology Institute in D.C. as a policy analyst specializing in the financing of new technologies and regional technology clusters. After RAND he served as director of the Center for Economic Development at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University for seven years, during which time he has also served as president of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse. From 2002 until he joined the RIDC, he held a joint economic development post at both Pitt University and Carnegie Mellon University known as the University Partnership.
Mickey McManus is president and CEO of MAYA Design, a design consultancy and innovation lab dedicated to taming the complexity of technology products. He leads an interdisciplinary team that creates innovative ways to integrate information and technology into a satisfying consumer experience. He speaks often about the need to include the human element in design, especially in the looming multi-billion dollar pervasive computing industry, which will encompass a multitude of networked products and smart services throughout our environment. Mickey was formerly co-founder and senior vice president of creative vision and strategy at élan communications, an integrated communications consultancy.
