Sonal Shah
Executive Director, Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities
Sonal Shah is the Executive Director of the Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities and the founder of The Urban Catalysts, advising multiple stakeholders –governments, development banks, philanthropicorganizations and think tanks on sustainable, equitable city planning and transport.
Over the last 15 years, Sonal has worked across 10 states in India, as well as Asia, Middle Eastand the United Statesfocusing on sustainable urban transport, non-motorized transport, integratedpublic transport, land-useandtransport integration and gender equity. Sonal was responsible for introducing India’s first gender sensitive urban planning guidelines andactively contributed towards revising India’s national urban street design guidelines (IRC codes) to make them people-oriented.
Sonal has led projects supported by the World Bank, AfD, UK Aid,ADB, IKI, Oak Foundation, Gates Foundation, GIZand Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has taughtatnumerous institutions such as theIndianInstitute for Human Settlements, Anant National University, KRVIA, Academy of Architecture and the JJ School of Architecture.
Sonal graduated from the MSc Urban Planning program from Columbia University. She was featured in the Alumni Spotlightin Fall 2013-14, and in the Remarkable Women in Transport2020by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. She was also part of the NITI Aayog’s WEP-UNDP programon Innovative Finance.