Richard Florida

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Richard Florida is one of the world's leading public intellectuals. Esquire recently named him one of the "Best and Brightest" in America. He is author of the national and international best-selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which received the Washington Monthly's Political Book Award and was cited as a major breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review. His ideas have been featured in major ad campaigns, such as BMW, and are being used globally to change the way regions, nations, and companies compete.

Florida is founder of the Creative Class Group, an advisory services firm, charting new trends in business and community.

Florida is a regular columnist with The Globe and Mail newspaper and has written articles for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, The Boston Globe and the Financial Times. His new book Who’s Your City? has become a national bestseller, an international bestseller, and an Amazon Book of the Month.

Florida is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.  Previously, Florida was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT, and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

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