Urban entrepreneurship here is defined as linking imagination, curiosity and action to the transformation of place for a better future. The ventures highlighted will be diverse, spanning projects rooted in storytelling, urban planning and progressive finance. In this time together, we will traverse examples of urban entrepreneurship that range from:
• A formerly vacant storefront space in Berlin converted into a community-based art hub dedicated to redefining the city’s urban perception
• A global public art project that used stickers and text messaging as a means to link the invisible and visible in urban life
• A neighborhood-based documentary arts center in Brooklyn that used archival film as a jumping off point for new forms of local connection
• A national storytelling initiative that juxtaposed the American political mythology of “Main Street” with the lived experience of all 10,466 streets literally named Main Street in the United States
• An ambitious investigation of how to accelerate truly environmentally and socially sustainable cities through a holistic rethinking of all urban systems in a neighborhood in Toronto
• An approach to social infrastructure to promote health for all in a new neighborhood development in Copenhagen
• A new investment strategy for neighborhood-scale urban regeneration across Northern European cities
Jesse is an urban entrepreneur who has been working in cities for over 20 years, now combining his passions for place and innovation at Urban Partners, Europe’s largest sustainable urban investor with €21bn AUM. His current focus is catalyzing capital for ambitious urban regeneration projects that integrate impact and strong returns, working with Europe’s most progressive urban developers and a select club of long-term investors. Since moving to Copenhagen in 2022, he also has played an integral role in Jernbanebyen (The Railway District), the city’s largest central-city urban regeneration project, along with shaping Urban Partners’ research, knowledge and partnership agenda with groups like C40 Cities. Before Urban Partners, Jesse worked at Sidewalk Labs and co-founded a range of place-based projects, including The Colors of Berlin, Yellow Arrow, UnionDocs and Mapping Main Street.
Jesse holds a BA in Urban Studies, Architecture, and Comparative Literature & Society from Columbia and a PhD in Urbanism and Critical Media Practice from the Harvard GSD. At Harvard, he also served on the Faculty of Architecture and Co-Founded metaLAB (at) Harvard at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.