Ludo Campbell-Reid

Ludo is described as an urban visionary, a global authority on cities and an urban design & city planning thought leader. As an independent consultant working for progressive clients around the world, he is a trusted expert adviser, mentor and inspirational keynote speaker with over 30 years of senior executive experience working on significant city-shaping projects in London, Cape Town, Auckland and Melbourne.

With an MA in Urban Design (Oxford Brookes University) and a BA Hons Degree in Urban Planning (Westminster University), his expertise is sought after by governments, ministers, mayors, councils, city leaders, community and industry alike. He is renowned for his visionary big-picture thinking, his ability to engage, excite and inspire audiences, to enable multidisciplinary cross-sector teamwork and to deliver best practice urban transformations on the ground.

Ludo’s global career has given him the opportunity to work on some of the world’s most exciting and significant urban regeneration or city activation projects and programmes. These include leading the precinct & infrastructure planning for the $34B Suburban Rail Loop project in Melbourne, leading ongoing master planning and urban design for Canary Wharf District in London (UK), founding CEO Urban Design London, appointed as adviser to the Mayor of London’s Expert Design Panel, undertaking early master planning for the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town (South Africa), leading Melbourne’s post-COVID economic recovery and major event programmes, leading the 13-year design-led urban transformation of Auckland’s central city & waterfront (Auckland became the world’s most liveable city in 2021), and also leading urban design for Cape Town’s 2004 Olympic Bid Co.

Ludo has also been asked by the Singapore Government to undertake masterplan peer review and urbanism workshops of significant public housing programmes being undertaken by the Housing Development Board.

In 2016, the Property Council of NZ described Ludo as “the lightning rod for the transformation of downtown Auckland” and in 2017, Idealog Magazine (NZ) described Ludo as one of New Zealand’s most creative people.

Ludo is also regularly sought after as a commentator on urban issues and has appeared on television & radio, in trade press and at various industry platforms. As a global keynote speaker, he has inspired international audiences across the globe from London, Hong Kong, Seattle and Stockholm to Bogotá, Los Angeles, Taipei and Singapore.

As a workshop facilitator and MC, he has MC’d large-scale events (GALA Economic Tripartite event in Guangzhou, China) and hosted workshops and masterclasses in urbanism with public sector officials and elected members in a broad range of cities at varying scales such as Singapore, Hamilton City Council (NZ) and Guangzhou.