The Urbanist: Dan Doctoroff

Rohit T. “Rit” Aggarwala was appointed commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the City’s chief climate officer in February 2022. Under his leadership, DEP has embraced a leadership role on both stormwater and coastal resilience, streamlined its procurement processes to be able to invest more money in infrastructure each year, and improved DEP’s water revenues by reducing accounts receivable and delivering revenues $250 million above budget in his first year. As chief climate officer, he also led the development of New York City’s most recent sustainability plan, PlaNYC.

Prior to the Adams administration, Aggarwala served as the first director of the New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, where he led the creation of the first PlaNYC. He later founded the environmental grantmaking program at Bloomberg Philanthropies and served as president of the Board of Directors of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. He was part of the founding team at Sidewalk Labs—Google’s urban technology startup—and more recently was a senior urban tech fellow at the Jacobs Cornell-Technion Institute. He has co-chaired the Regional Plan Association’s Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan area and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Aggarwala holds a PhD, MBA, and BA from Columbia University and an MA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Currently Robert Hammond is the president and chief strategy officer for Therme Group US, where he is leading an initiative to bring large scale bathing facilities to the United States. Prior to joining Therme Group US, Robert served as the co-founder and executive director of the High Line for over two decades. Alongside Joshua David he led in the transformation of an abandoned elevated railway line in Manhattan into an iconic urban park.

Under his leadership, the High Line grew to become one of the most beloved public spaces in the United States, attracting eight million annual visitors annually with its innovative design, public art program, and community programming. Inspiring adaptive reuse projects around the world, he also created the High Line Network to foster community and share best practices among leaders of other infrastructure renewal projects. He was also instrumental in building youth and educational partnerships to engage young New Yorkers as environmental stewards and civic leaders. He has won over two dozen national and international awards for his work.

A certified Vedic meditation teacher, Hammond has served as a consultant or advisor for myriad companies and organizations, including the Times Square Alliance, Alliance for the Arts, and the National Cooperative Bank. He served as an ex-officio member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees, as well as Liberty Expedia, a formerly publicly traded travel company. He currently serves on the boards for Little Island, Sauna Aid, Grounded Solutions Network, and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Purnima Kapur is Harvard University’s inaugural chief of university planning and design. She overseas planning and design for all of Harvard University’s campuses in Cambridge, Allston, and the Longwood Medical Area, as well as Harvard’s long-range, and multiphased work in Allston. She has been a visiting faculty member at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and has also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAAP). She serves as a director on the board of Hudson River Park Trust, as well as the Skyscraper Museum.

Kapur has more than 25 years of experience in New York City Planning Department, culminating with her appointment as the executive director in 2014. Kapur is one of the key architects of New York City’s groundbreaking Mandatory Inclusionary Housing regulation. Under her leadership, the City adopted five Integrated Neighborhood Plans in four boroughs, as well as an innovative plan for the redevelopment of Greater East Midtown. Prior to that Kapur was a key player in the redevelopment and transformation of Brooklyn for over two decades, leading high-priority and transformative projects, including the development of Greenpoint-Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn, and Coney Island among other neighborhoods. In her role as the director of the Bronx Office of City Planning, Kapur oversaw the largest transformation in the South Bronx with the construction of the new Yankee Stadium and Gateway Shopping Center, rezonings in several neighborhoods including Port Morris, Morrisania, Riverdale, and City Island, and the adoption of the Hunts Point Plan.

Kapur holds a Master of City Planning and a Master of Science of Architecture Studies from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the School of Planning and Architecture Delhi.

Saundra Thomas is a nonprofit consultant with more than three decades of media and nonprofit leadership experience. Her work focuses on executive leadership coaching and strategic planning. She is currently vice chair of Open House New York’s board of directors and previously served the organization as interim co-executive director.

During her 16-year tenure as vice president of community affairs at WABC-TV, the ABC New York flagship station, Thomas led, designed, and oversaw all on-air public service announcements, community outreach, and station community projects for the New York tristate area. She is a perennial and sought-after board member, speaker, and coach who loves to dabble in spoken-word poetry. In addition to Open House New York, Thomas is a board member of Indigo Arts Alliance, the Prospect Park Alliance, and The Peace Studio.