SPEAKERS

Li Yu Zhou - Singapore

Yu Zhou is a Director at MORROW and the General Manager of MORROW Shanghai. Yu Zhou, who is responsible for MORROW’s international urban planning efforts, has been practising as an urban planner since completing his Masters in Architecture at the National University of Singapore. Professionally, Yu Zhou is a versatile planner-designer who can manage projects from macro to micro-scale and has been involved in master planning projects with population sizes ranging from a few hundred thousand to millions, such as Central Business Districts, Tourism Districts, Residential Neighbourhoods and High-Tech Parks.

Christian Schantl - Vienna

Christian Schantl, born 1959 in Carinthia, Austria studied physical education and Literature. Before joining Wiener Wohnen he held various positions in the areas of marketing and communication. Among other things, he was managing director of the Festspielhaus St. Pölten and the Lower Austrian Danube Festival, head of marketing of the Austrian Railway Company ÖBB or executive partner of the Viennese Public Relations agency Conter PR. Until 2019 he was head of marketing and communication at Wiener Wohnen for about nine years, since August 2019 he is head of the International Relations department.

Frank Liu - Houston

Mr. Liu is the founder of Lovett Commercial, Lovett Homes, InTown Homes and Lovett Industrial. A Chinese American born in Taiwan, Mr. Liu emigrated to the U.S. in 1971 and arrived in Houston in 1973. He graduated from Rice University with a civil engineering degree. In 1995 Mr. Liu founded Lovett Commercial, specializing in commercial development and redevelopment. In 2003, further growth led to his development of InTown Homes, a design-driven and environmentally friendly residential development company working in emerging neighborhoods. Mr. Liu has worked with some of the world’s finest architects and designers, including OMA, Snohetta, and DPZ.

Dr. Peter Cookson Smith - Hong Kong

Dr Peter Cookson Smith is an architect, planner and urban designer. He has been resident in Hong Kong since 1977 when he founded URBIS Limited one of the first specialist, planning, urban design and landscape consultancies in South-east Asia, which over the past 44 years has carried out more than 3,000 projects in Hong Kong, Mainland China and throughout Asia. The firm has won more than 250 local and international awards including the 2017 International Award of Excellence from the Royal Town Planning Institute. He directed some of the first planning studies for new towns in Hong Kong in the 1980s, and has been involved with many aspects of city planning and urban design for a wide range of government and private bodies in many parts of Asia including urban regeneration, strategic development investigations, waterfront planning and environmental studies.

Ir. Francis Sootoo - Hong Kong

Ir. Francis Sootoo is a Director of MVA Hong Kong (Systra Group) with over 30 years of wide-ranging international experience in traffic engineering, transport planning and project management of large-scale government and private sector projects (TOD mix-used development) acquired in HK, China and overseas.

Silvia Hofer - Vienna

Silvia Hofer has been the Head of Property Management and Quality Management at wohnfonds_wein since 2008. She also previously served as the Manager for Property Management and Quality Management there.

Nicole Buchl - Vienna

Nicole Büchl serves as the current Head of Service Point for Renovation “HAUSKUNFT” in wohnfonds_wien and previously served as the Head of Public Relations/Corporate Communications also at wohnfonds_wien as well as the Project Supervisor for Renovation. Additionally, we has also worked in various architectural offices, and has been a freelance journalist for specialist magazines.