Meet our Principals

David is Founder and Director of Learning Cities International Pty Ltd. He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor Group Governance (including audit and risk, compliance, subsidiary entities and governance restructure), Dean of Environmental Design and Construction and now Emeritus Professor at RMIT, where his responsibilities variously included all of RMIT’s higher education programs; international programs; corporate governance; research and development; campus planning, property services and major projects. He was founding project director and start-up CEO of RMIT University Vietnam, now the world’s largest international branch campus. Prior to that he was Director, National Urban and Regional Strategy in the Australian government and Head, Central Policy Division and Head, Planning Division (South) in the NSW government. He has degrees in economics and planning from the Universities of Queensland, Sydney and California at Berkeley. David has led projects in over 30 countries.

Dr Sunil Dubey, a Principal Associate of Learning Cities International, is a practitioner in urban development, smart cities and capacity building knowledge networks for global cities. As Senior Advisor for Metropolis World Association, he has worked closely with city and metropolitan governments in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe on governance and capacity building programs, and training missions. Sunil has advised local governments, including Guangzhou, Seoul, Paris, Mashhad, Mexico City, Sydney, Delhi and Hyderabad on learning exchanges and city to city partnerships. He has led global engagements on urban economic partnerships with local governments and multilaterals, including World Bank, ADB, and AusAID. Sunil has been on the advisory board of Citiscope (Reuters Foundation), Urban Development panel of World Economic Forum, Jury member for the Smart City World Congress Barcelona and founding member of the Geneva Foundation for Governance and Public Policy. Sunil teaches Building Economics and Asset Management at the University of Sydney.

Dr Anh Pham, a Principal Associate of Learning Cities International, is an analyst, researcher, and lecturer with over 15 years’ experience in tertiary education, especially in the internationalisation of higher education in Vietnam. She is current in research on the engagement of transnational higher education in highly-skilled urban workforce development, particularly the role of international education providers in capacity building for the domestic higher education sector and for other industries in developing economies in South-East Asia. She has a PhD from RMIT University in International Education, a MA from the Vietnam National University-HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and a BA from the HCMC University of Education.