Media Releases

Former Toronto City Manager Joe Pennachetti to join World Council on City Data and Global Cities Institute at U of T

November 18, 2015

Toron­to, ON — World Coun­cil on City Data (WCCD) Pres­i­dent and CEO, and Direc­tor of the Glob­al Cities Insti­tute (GCI), Pro­fes­sor Patri­cia McCar­ney, is pleased to announce the appoint­ment of Joe Pen­na­chet­ti as WCCD Exec­u­tive Advi­sor – Glob­al City Strat­e­gy and as a Glob­al Cities Insti­tute Senior Fel­low at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to.  Mr. Pen­na­chet­ti will focus on the growth of the WCCD city net­work through­out Ontario, Cana­da and inter­na­tion­al­ly while work­ing with col­leagues at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to in devel­op­ing data ana­lyt­ics to inform city dia­logues world­wide.

“On behalf of the WCCD and GCI, we are delight­ed to wel­come Mr. Pen­na­chet­ti to this new role. His years of ser­vice to the City of Toron­to, most recent­ly as City Man­ag­er, mark him as an ide­al cham­pi­on to help expand the WCCD net­work and inform uti­liza­tion of the data to build ana­lyt­ic tools at the Glob­al Cities Insti­tute for city lead­ers world­wide. We look for­ward to his input, intel­lect and strate­gic advice,” said Dr. McCar­ney. “Along­side Sen­a­tor Art Eggle­ton – Chair of the WCCD Glob­al City Lead­ers Advi­so­ry Board, and Richard Som­mer — Dean of the Daniels Fac­ul­ty of Archi­tec­ture, Land­scape and Design at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to – we would like to con­grat­u­late Mr. Pen­na­chet­ti on this appoint­ment and we look for­ward to work­ing with him.”

Mr. Pen­na­chet­ti served for thir­teen years as Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer and City Man­ag­er at the City of Toron­to, Canada’s largest city and sixth largest gov­ern­ment. Work­ing through sev­er­al admin­is­tra­tions, he is wide­ly cred­it­ed with ensur­ing that Toronto’s ser­vice lev­els and cost effi­cien­cies were enhanced through a pro­gres­sive per­for­mance man­age­ment pro­gram.  Mr. Pen­na­chet­ti has also been one of the dri­ving forces behind the cre­ation of ISO 37120, the first inter­na­tion­al stan­dard for sus­tain­able cities.

-30-

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

James Pata­va
416–966-2368
james.patava@globalcities.ca
Estab­lished in 2014, the WCCD is oper­a­tional­is­ing ISO 37120 across cities glob­al­ly – the first inter­na­tion­al stan­dard for indi­ca­tors on city ser­vices and qual­i­ty of life. With 100 indi­ca­tors, around 17 themes sup­port­ing city ser­vices and qual­i­ty of life, ISO 37120 data is acces­si­ble through the WCCD Open City Data Por­tal which allows for cut­ting-edge visu­al­i­sa­tions and com­par­isons. The World Coun­cil on City Data Foun­da­tion Cities include: Boston, Toron­to, Los Ange­les, Buenos Aires, Bogo­ta, Guadala­jara, Ams­ter­dam, Barcelona, Helsin­ki, Lon­don, Rot­ter­dam, Barcelona, Min­na, Johan­nes­burg, Amman, Makkah, Dubai, Haiphong, Makati, Shang­hai, and Mel­bourne. 
The Glob­al Cities Insti­tute (GCI) is housed with­in the John H. Daniels Fac­ul­ty of Archi­tec­ture, Land­scape and Design at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. Focus­ing on research to cre­ate sus­tain­able, resilient, inclu­sive and pros­per­ous cities of tomor­row, the GCI has been inte­gral to the devel­op­ment of ISO 37120 – the first inter­na­tion­al stan­dard for sus­tain­able cities. In addi­tion to its work on devel­op­ing city indi­ca­tors for stan­dard­ized urban met­rics, the GCI also engages in the glob­al smart cities agen­da, the emer­gent field of para-diplo­ma­cy, as well as lever­ag­ing its unique and long­stand­ing con­tacts with the City of Toron­to (and cities through­out the world) as a bridge between acad­e­mia and local gov­ern­ment. The work of the GCI is sup­port­ed by its exten­sive, inter­na­tion­al and mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary list of Senior Fel­lows who are lead­ing schol­ars in the fields of Archi­tec­ture, Geog­ra­phy, Polit­i­cal Sci­ence, Urban Design, Engi­neer­ing, Pub­lic Affairs, Urban Finance and Man­age­ment, Urban Pol­i­cy and Eco­nom­ics.