Gabriel Metcalf

Gabriel Metcalf is the CEO of the Committee for Sydney, a role he has held since January 2019. The Committee for Sydney is a research and advocacy organisation that works with leaders across Sydney to solve the problems of today and tomorrow.

From 2005 to 2018, he served as the President and CEO of SPUR, an urban policy research and advocacy group for the San Francisco Bay Area. Gabriel led SPUR through a major expansion of its work, staffing, funding, geographic footprint, and impact.

Gabriel has led initiatives on housing, transport, economic development, and climate adaptation, among other topics, striving to bring together both vision and practicality.

Gabriel earned a Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design. From 2016-2018 he held the Cornish Endowed Chair in City and Regional Planning at U.C. Berkeley, where he taught an acclaimed course, “Cities and Social Change.”

A frequent speaker and writer on planning and policy topics, some of his publications include Sand Castles Before the Tide: Affordable Housing in Expensive Cities; Four Scenarios for Year 2070; Learning from Tokyo; The San Francisco Exodus; and The Great Dithering. He is also the author of Democratic by Design (St. Martin’s Press, 2015).