He’s been called a fearsome negotiator, overzealous, demanding, picky, argumentative, grating – and brilliant.
Now the guru behind New York City’s new $2-billion tech campus iscoming to Toronto this week.
Seth Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic DevelopmentCorp.,has played a key role as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s right hand man indeveloping a sprawling, ambitious engineering school at a plot ofderelict land on the Big Apple’s Roosevelt Island. Bloomberg has toutedthe school, being built in a partnership with Cornell University, as aready-made tech hub that will give California’s Silicon Valley a runfor its money one day.
Seth Pinsky, who headed up plansto build a $2-billion tech campus in NYC, will speak at Toronto’sInnovation City conference this week.
Just 40, Pinsky also played a pivotal role in steering redevelopment ofthe World Trade Center site after the devastating terrorist attacks of2001. The words listed above were used to describe him in a NewYorkObserver profile. The New York Times(dubbing him “soft-spoken andunfailingly courteous”) recently named him one of the mostpowerfulpeople in New York City, crediting him with “dragging New York City’seconomy back from the brink of financial crisis.”
This week he’ll share his thoughts on how cities can become innovationcentres with a Toronto audience. He’ll speak at The Innovation City, atwo-day conference held July 18 and 19 at the MaRS Discovery District.
Other speakers slated to lead the two-day conversation include GuruBanavar(CTO for global public sector at IBM), University of Toronto presidentDavid Naylor and New York University president John Sexton.