
Gil Penalosa
MBA, PhDhc, CSP
Founder and ED, Cities for Everyone
Creator, Master Classes, C4E
Advocate, Our Third Act
Founder and chair, 880 Cities
Inspiring Change • 350 Cities
Gil (Guillermo) Penalosa is passionate about creating cities for all people. He has inspired and advised decision makers in more than 350 different cities around the world. His priority is creating cities for everyone: affordable, equitable, sustainable where all people can live healthier and happier regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, ability, or socio-economic background.
His focus is on the design and use of parks, streets, sidewalks as great public places, as well as sustainable mobility: walking, riding bicycles, using public transit, and new uses of cars. Complete neighbourhoods, walkable cities. Gil highlights the benefits to public health, the environment, mobility, economic development.
Gil is Founder and Chair of 8 80 Cities, a successful Canadian-based international non-profit organization, grounded on a simple but powerful concept: What if everything we did in our cities had to be great for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old? Surely, we would end up with fantastic cities for all!
He is also founder and lead of Cities for Everyone, focused on the advocacy, the doing. In addition, he hosts a bi-weekly international webinar, and has developed a version of all services concentrated on older adults, which is a third of our lives.
In 2023 Gil is complementing keynotes with in-depth master classes, combining the message for the hundreds with capacity building / inspiration for the doers.