Richard Florida

Biography

Richard Florida is one of the world's leading public intellectuals. Esquire Magazine recently named him one of the ‘Best and Brightest'. 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 and such as BMW and Apple and are being used globally to change the way regions, nations, and companies compete. He is founder of the Creative Class Group, an advisory services firm, charting new trends in business and community. Richard has been appointed to the Business Innovation Factory's Research Advisory Council and recently named European Ambassador for Creativity and Innovation.

Richard is a regular correspondent with the Atlantic Monthly and has written articles for the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Boston Globe and the Financial Times. He has been featured on ABC 20/20, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NPR and several other major media.

His most recent book, Who's Your City? has been hailed a National Best-Seller, an International Best-Seller and Amazon Book of the Month. His previous book, The Rise of the Creative Class, was recognized as the "Best Business Book of All Time" and was awarded by Harvard Business Review as a Breakthrough Idea.

He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Florida previously held a professorship 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.

Publications

Who's Your City?
How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.
It's a mantra of the age of globalization that where you live doesn't matter: you can telecommute to your high-tech Silicon Valley job, a ski-slope in Idaho, a beach in Hawaii or a loft in Chicago; you can innovate from Shanghai or Bangalore.

According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Place is not only important, it's more important than ever.

Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people meet and our "mating markets" and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives.

Who's Your City provides the first ever-rankings of cities by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, young families and empty-nesters. And it grounds its new ideas and data to provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans of who move each year on how to choose where to live, and what those choices mean for their lives, happiness and communities.

Titles

On Real Estate: Real Estate for the Creative Economy Location, location, location. It's an old real estate adage, but it matters today more than ever before. Florida's work on demographics and migration of the creative class has made him one of the most sought after speakers and consultants to the real estate industry. Leading developers consider The Rise of the Creative Class to be the veritable bible for innovative high-value-producing projects in everything from residential to office, commercial and industrial real estate. Florida's subtle but powerful indicators – the Bohemian Index and the Gay Index – show which locations are winners and which are losers in the new real estate reality. Who's Your City? - How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life It's a mantra of the age of globalization that where you live doesn't matter: you can telecommute to your high-tech Silicon Valley job, a ski-slope in Idaho, a beach in Hawaii or a loft in Chicago; you can innovate from Shanghai or Bangalore. According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Place is not only important, it's more important than ever. Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people meet and our "mating markets" and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives. Who's Your City provides the first ever-rankings of cities by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, young families and empty-nesters. And it grounds its new ideas and data to provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans of who move each year on how to choose where to live, and what those choices mean for their lives, happiness and communities.