Biography
Iain Dobson is an internationally recognized expert on city development, urban mobility, and transit systems. Since 2000, when Iain retired from a successful 25-year career in commercial real estate development, he has focused on bringing best practices from around the world to planning and managing infrastructure investment.
When COVID drove most employees home he developed and publishes twice a month the leading account of how many office employees are back in the office. It is a data driven record and includes articles of interest from around the globe. He is also publishing work on reducing congestion, getting more out of the transit we have and how to locate affordable housing on transit hubs.
His talk will examine the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic, the new debate about work-from-home and its financial impact on city centres.
He co-founded the Strategic Regional Research Alliance, a research body which partners with all levels of government and the private sector to provide a better understanding of the components and complexities of making informed infrastructure investment decisions. He also co-founded The Value Planning Group and the Real Estate Search Corporation, which satisfies the ever-growing need for comprehensive, reliable, accurate independently collected data.
He has served on the Board of Metrolinx, the Premier’s Transit Investment Strategy Advisory Panel, and the Expert Panel on the Sheppard Transit Corridor. Iain was a former CivicAction Commercial Building Advisory Panel member, and a former Chair of the University of Toronto Schools Alumni and Jackman Institute of Child Study Daycare Board and the Advisory Board of LIGHTS.
Iain has received numerous industry awards and has spoken at many of North America’s leading industry associations, including the US Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Association of Ontario Land Economists, Canadian Real Estate Forums, and radio and TV programs such as Metro Morning and Cross Canada Check Up, among others. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trent University.