Richard Florida

Richard Florida is the author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class, which received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award for that year and was later named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004. The New York Times called it "an important book for those who feel passionately about the future of the urban center." Cities and regions across the United States and the world have embarked on new creativity strategies based on Florida's ideas. His new book, The Flight of the Creative Class, which examines the global competition for creative talent, will be published by HarperBusiness in March 2005. Florida is currently the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was the Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, and has been a visiting professor at MIT and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder and principal of two companies: the Creativity Group, an innovative communications and strategies team; and Catalytix, a strategy-consulting firm. Florida earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, D.C.