Gideon Berger is senior director of the Daniel Rose Fellowship program for ULI’s Rose Center for Public Leadership. Before joining ULI, Gideon was a senior city planner at the City of Denver’s Community Planning and Development Department, where he crafted plans for neighborhoods expecting new transit stations and co-managed the Living Streets Initiative. Prior to working for the City of Denver, Gideon was a transit oriented development planner for the Denver Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks Program, a $7 billion regional rail transit capital project including six new corridors and more than 50 new stations. He has been an adjunct faculty member of the University of Colorado-Denver, and his previous professional experience in public affairs communication includes serving as editor of the Almanac of American Politics and Greenwire environmental news service, as well as working for The Nature Conservancy and the Republican Party. Gideon has a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.A. in Communication from American University, and is a certified planner by the AICP. He has published articles on planning in the journal The Next American City, National Journal magazine, The Hill newspaper, and Planetizen website, has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and his award-winning master’s thesis was cited in the 2005 Brookings Institution report “Who Lives Downtown.”

Omar Blaik is founder and CEO of U3 Ventures, LLC. Mr. Blaik started U3 Ventures in 2006 with the belief that anchor institutions hold the key to sustainable community and economic development in many cities across the country. Early in 2007, U3 Ventures, LLC secured a $15 million Fund to invest in its development strategy. Since then, the Fund has been deployed in Center City area of Philadelphia in close proximity to many university campuses and hospitals. Mr. Blaik has also led the advisory efforts of U3Ventures, working with university leaders, cities and municipalities, state governments and foundations. The advisory work focuses on institutional strategy, campus edge planning, deploying economic activity for local benefits, and real estate strategy & economic feasibility. Prior to forming U3 Ventures, Mr. Blaik was the Senior Vice President at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the University in February 1997, and served as the Chief Planning and Real Estate Officer, with responsibility for Planning, Design and Construction, Facilities Operations and Maintenance, Utilities management, and Real Estate Development. His responsibility spanned the management of 14 million square feet of space, $350 million of annual operating and capital budget and 1,000 employees. During his tenure at Penn, Mr. Blaik led the effort to enhance the quality of life on campus and in the neighborhood by creating a vibrant and engaging environment in which students, faculty, and staff can learn, live, work, and play. Under his management, Penn embarked on more than $2.0 billion of construction and real estate development transforming both campus and the surrounding community. Mr. Blaik came to Penn from Coopers and Lybrand, were he led a team of consultants providing advisory services to Presidents, CEO’s, and Executive Vice Presidents in the areas of facilities planning, real estate, and capital programs to corporate and institutional clients. Mr. Blaik is a member of CEOs for Cities, Institute for Urban Design and serves on the Advisory Council of Community Design Collaborative. Mr. Blaik has written several articles and is a frequent public speaker on the topic of anchor institutions and economic development. Mr. Blaik received his Bachelor of Science degree from Cairo University, his Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California, and his MBA from New York University, Leonard Stern School of Business.