Anderson, SC (USA)

Mayor Terence V. Roberts is an Anderson native who has been in the forefront of the business and public service community for more than 30 years. He has served on boards and commissions across the spectrum: from caring for displaced families to advocating for public art. He has a judicious approach to decision-making and seeks to build a consensus for the improvement of Anderson and the entire Upstate community. He was recognized for his leadership, community service, and passion for education, particularly during the school readiness years.
Mayor Roberts currently serves as Co-President of the International Network of Michelin Cities (INMC) along with Mayor Olivier Bianchi, mayor of Clermont-Ferrand, France.

As a defender of businesses, the Mayor has kept working with the City Council to establish public/private partnerships to revitalize the city center, which led to the current period of sustained economic growth. His mandate has brought many new restaurants and businesses to settle in Anderson’s core, notably the million-worth hotel which recently opened and the municipal parking lot. Roberts puts the emphasis on infrastructure, green spaces and public art. His leadership has helped turning the city center into an attractive place for local commerce.

The Mayor ensures that Anderson remains a good place to live through his efforts to build a walkable, bikeable and more mobile community. Strengthening neighborhoods continues to be a priority for the City Council, which works with partners to develop housing adapted to the requirements of the century.

First elected in 2006, Mayor Roberts is now in his fifth term. He considers that his profession is at the same time exciting, challenging, frustrating and rewarding. His vision for the future is an aggressive and imaginative plan to pursue growth, production, and development. His focus as a supporter of businesses and as an advocate of the citizens of Anderson will contribute to making Anderson become “the most desirable city in the region.”

Mayor Roberts attributed his strong work ethic to the morals that his parents and former generations conveyed. He is motivated by one of his mother’s favorite quotes that he likes to repeat: “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care about who gets the credit.”

Olivier Bianchi is the current Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand, France, and President of the Clermont Auvergne Métropole federation of municipalities.

Richard Florida is the Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Global Research Professor at New York University, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, which works closely with governments and companies worldwide. Richard Florida is considered to be the world’s leading urbanist, “as close to a household name as it is possible for an urban theorist to be in America”, according to The Economist. Esquire included him in its annual list of “The Best and the Brightest,” and Fast Company dubbed him an “intellectual rock star”. MIT Technology Review named him one of the world’s most influential thinkers.

Florida is the author of several global bestsellers, including award-winning The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation and Failing the Middle Class – and What We Can Do About It. He is also a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for Atlantic Cities, the world’s leading media site devoted to cities and urban affairs.

Richard Florida previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University and George Mason University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his PhD from Columbia University.

Check out some recent articles from Florida: Building Back? Richard Florida Outlines His Vision for a ‘Post Pandemic City’, Bring American cities into the 21^st century by funding urban innovation. You can also check out his podcast channel.

John Houseal is a Principal and Co-founder of Houseal Lavigne. He has directed planning, design, economic development, and zoning-related projects across the USA, working with both public and private sector clients. Houseal has been a featured speaker at national, regional, state, and local conferences for issues related to planning innovation, urban planning, zoning, transportation, context-sensitive design, sustainability, economic development, and environmental issues. His work has garnered national attention and helped to distinguish the firm’s body of work, receiving multiple awards in several states, as well as the National Planning Excellence Award from the American Planning Association for an Emerging Planning and Design Firm.

Jean-Yves Bechler studied environmental engineering at Agroparistech (Paris), after a post-graduate diploma in Physics of Condensed Matter at Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris).

He worked for the Ministry of Agriculture at different scales (local, regional, national), impulsing an agroenvironmental shift. Bechler then moved to territorial development for DATAR, where he became Head of the Unit dedicated to the development of Massif Central.

In 2016, he became Executive director of the authority in charge of mobility for the metropolitan area of Clermont-Ferrand.

Anke Karmann-Woessner studied architecture and urban planning at the Technical University of Darmstadt and completed her PhD on European environmental law at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. For many years, she worked in the Bavarian State Building Administration and spent a lot of time abroad in France. In 2009, Anke Karmann-Woessner moved to the  Municipal Authorities and has been Head of the Urban Planning Office in Karlsruhe since 2013.

She did teaching activities in numerous universities:

• 2013: Honorary Professorship at the Nürtingen University of Applied Sciences
• 2018-2021: Visiting Professorship at the University of Salford/Manchester, UK
• Since 2018: lectureship at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), various jury and speaker activities as well as publications. Leader of EU-funded projects in the European Union and internationally (India).

Anke Karmann-Woessner is a member of the Executive board of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), the Advisory Board of the Bundesstiftung Baukultur and was appointed to the German Academy for Urban and Regional Spatial Planning.

David Mitchell was elected as Bridgewater’s 26^th Mayor in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020.

Over the course of his mayoralty, Mitchell has been at the forefront of many key initiatives that have helped Bridgewater to become the strong center of economic, social, and sustainable leadership that it is today. Mitchell is known for his willingness to speak up and respected as one who gets things done and never minces his words.

During his term, David Mitchell supported the introduction of public transportation to Bridgewater. He also fostered relations with other cities to bring Bridgewater to the next level, notably by winning the Smart Cities Challenge, broadening relationships with C40 members, and by being a board member for the International Network of Michelin Cities.

Francis Renault is currently the Climate Change Adaptation Group Fellow Risk Manager at Michelin.
Over the past 25 years, his career path, initially in research at Michelin, has led him to manage issues related to the environment, people’s health and safety, fire and security at operational and Group levels.

Toni Lautenschläger received a Diploma degree in Physics from the University of Regensburg. From 1991 to 2000, he worked as an advisor in the energy policy sector for the European Commission. Since 2000, Toni Lautenschläger has served for the City of Regensburg, beginning as project manager. He has been at the head of the Department of Economic and Research Affairs since 2015. Additionally, Lautenschläger has worked as managing director of the Regensburg Business Development GmbH since 2006, and has been in charge of the international marketing of Regensburg’s economic area.

Michael Grein is the Coordinator of Municipal Development Policy for the City of Regensburg.
One of his tasks is to raise awareness on the sustainability goals of the 2030 Agenda (SDGs) in Regensburg, both in urban society and in the city administration. The development of the first municipal sustainability monitoring system in Regensburg, the Future Barometer, is also one of his tasks, just like the expansion of fair trade and acquisition in the city.

François Leduc has been General Manager of Magog technopole since 2021. He supports innovative project leaders in the Memphrémagog region in Canada. He worked in the telecommunications industry, the media sector, and the tourism industry. Today, his mission is to attract and encourage the growth of technological and innovative companies by offering them a collaborative working environment, within a passionate business community focused on knowledge sharing, for the benefit of the greater Magog region.

Yannick Izoard studied cellular biology specializing in microbiology and did a PhD in management at IAE Aix-Marseille. He began his career in 1998 by founding and taking care of the company Biostrategy, focused on marketing applied to the creation of innovative companies in biotechnology. Izoard then joined Anvar, the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, in 2002, as business manager. In 2005, he entered the Oseo Auvergne regional management and was in charge of technology transfer programs and European affairs. He then managed digital projects supplemented by the plastics processing sectors and other industrial applications. In 2014, he was appointed Regional Head Innovation at the French Bank of Investment (Bpifrance). He instructed, monitored or decided on more than 1,000 innovation project financing files. He left Bpifrance in September 2019 and became the General Manager of Clermont Auvergne Innovation.

Annie Sutton has held various positions at the Anderson County Library System since 2006. She was appointed Director in 2021. Sutton obtained her Master’s Degree of Library and Information Science from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
In 2019, she was elected South Carolina Librarian of the Year. Her position in the Anderson County Library System enabled her to focus on outreach, advocacy and innovation. Sutton is currently serving as the Literacy Chair for the Rotary Club of Anderson and on the United Way Community Impact Cabinet.

Magali Gallais studied sociology, linguistics and science of education at the University of Clermont-Ferrand and graduated in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, she worked in Dublin, Ireland, at first in a factory and then in a pub to improve her English.

In 2002, she went back to University in France, obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in linguistics and a Master’s Degree in linguistics and teaching French as a foreign language. From 2002 to 2009, she was a social worker and a specialized educator for disabled children, before turning to young offenders to help them reintegrate school and find employment.

In 2009, she began a new program and another degree to become a Senior education advisor for middle- and high-school students. In 2014, she worked in a middle-school located in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Clermont-Ferrand made up of 25 different nationalities from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.

Moreover, Gallais worked as a training officer for the Academy of Clermont-Ferrand (training sessions for young teachers). In 2016, she was selected by the French Fulbright Commission to participate in the European Administrators Program in Washington, DC and Denver. The European School Administrator Program sends excellent European administrators and head teachers to the United States to examine and exchange ideas on various approaches to promote the economic and social advancement of minority, refugee, and young immigrants.

In 2018, she co-wrote the book Territoires Vivants de la République. This collective work restored the possible conditions for teaching in France today. It therefore defends a positive and political vision of schools in working-class neighborhoods, as well as a model of positive integration and citizenship building.

In September 2023, she was invited by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in Minneapolis for ten days to give lectures about the French school system and how to work in comparative education between the American and French educational system. She visited high-schools and met American teachers, school boards and headmasters. She described it as a deep and interesting experience.

Since 2014, she has been involved in politics and is now Deputy Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand for equal rights and the fight against discrimination. To be more specific, her work is to promote gender equality, LGBT-friendly policies, and the fight against racism. Along with Mayor Olivier Bianchi, they inaugurated the first “women house”, named 25, Gisèle Halimi. There, women can receive help and support when they are victim of domestic violence, health issues or in need of housing or employment. Since its opening on January 1, 2024, the structure have welcomed over 2,500 women.

Calmin Borel is the General Delegate of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

Adam Rosendahl is an international presenter, experience designer, DJ, founder and CEO of Late Nite Art®. He works with the world’s top companies to create transformational experiences that impact and inspire tens of thousands of leaders, entrepreneurs and teams across 13 countries.

Jérôme Auslender is the Deputy Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand for International Affairs.

Alexander Rupprecht was born in Dorsten in 1971. He studied political sciences, cultural and economic policies, then worked for several years in the promotion of technology and innovation. Since 2013, he has been the managing director of the municipal R-Tech GmbH in Regensburg, where he coordinates the construction of the new innovation center “TechBase” for start-ups and other innovative companies. In addition to TechBase, R-Tech GmbH organizes the Bavarian Cluster “Mobility & Logistics and the Digital Start-up Initiative Upper Palatinate”.

After approximately 15 years as a professional basketball player, Carole Force joined the Michelin Group in 1995. From her beginnings in the Group, she has worked in the fields of Progress, Management and Human Resources. She then became Director of the ASM Omnisports, the Michelin-run sports club and has been in the Public Affairs team for France since 2008, focusing on territorial relationships. She is also in charge of Michelin Development for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France, an initiative to create jobs where Michelin is located.

Since 2021, she has been the representative of Michelin and vice-president in charge of industry in the Chamber of Commerce of the Puy-de-Dôme and on the board of the Regional Chamber.

Fanny Martin has been in charge of the Visual Arts Department for the City of Clermont-Ferrand since 2017. She worked in different contemporary art institutions such as the Contemporary Art Institute (IAC) of Villeurbanne-Rhône-Alpes, the Contemporary Art Center of Parc Saint Léger and the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art. She graduated from the Institute of Political Sciences of Lyon in 2009.

Since the beginning of her career, she has been interested in the subject of artists’ residencies and managed during a year a place dedicated to residency in Clermont-Ferrand. She is the CreArt coordinator for the City and contributes to the European network for artistic creativity which offers, among other things, an artist residency program between 13 European cities.

Herman A. Keith Jr. is a painter and muralist from Anderson, South Carolina.

His mission is to unite art with the community through the creative process and to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives. His work takes the form a visual dialogue between the past, the present and the future. He respectfully installs large artworks in public places, aiming to visually communicate guidance and direction for humanity through the use of light. “Color is Light, Light is Energy, Energy is Life, Life is Love”.

Herman A. Keith Jr. received his MAT in Art Education from Lander University in Greenwood, SC, and a BFA in Graphic Design from Howard University in Washington, DC. He is the founder of the South Carolina Rural Arts Project (S.C.R.A.P.) which is in a partnership with the Lake City Creative Alliance. This collaboration is a conscious effort to energize and revitalize rural cities and communities through art by transforming public spaces collectively with locals, institutions, and organizations. Keith is a visiting art instructor at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC, and currently resides in Lake City, SC.