Strategic Cities is led by Mark Ames
“Every project has the potential to be significantly impacted by negative engagement. We’re here to help.”
Here at Strategic Cities we believe that understanding strategic engagement and communications - how cities and their citizens interact - is a vital skill for everyone working in cities today.
Company founder Mark Ames has been talking about cities, and how they change, for more than 15 years.
In that time he has led high-level political briefings, designed consultation and engagement strategies, hosted workshops - and trained more than 1,000 of his client’s employees on how to make sense of change in their cities.
Want to know more about how Mark can help you?
Experience
Mark is course leader of “Engaging Communities for Changing Streets”, a residential short course at the Urban Cycling Institute in Amsterdam, and lead trainer for Strategic Cities’ training pathway.
Advising on strategic engagement and communications in transport and precinct advisory, Mark’s previous clients include the City of Valencia (Spain), Cycle Toronto (Canada), Auckland Transport and Boffa Misell (New Zealand), the City of Sydney (Australia) and global infrastructure advisory firm AECOM (Australia).
Project highlights include a 5-day, 6-city, 9-workshop training tour of New Zealand, and leading business engagement for the City of Sydney’s contentious Cycling Strategy and Action Plan 2018 – 2030.
In precincts, Mark led the team for five years at Australia’s original innovation district, Macquaire Park. Achievements there included coordinating stakeholders for the State Government’s 20-year masterplan, leading delegations to Parliament, and extensive business and community engagement.
Mark played an influential role in his native London, where he helped secure Mayor Boris Johnson’s controversial 10-year one-billion-pound cycling strategy through a mix of engagement, advocacy and media strategy.
Mark’s thought leadership about cities and transport has been published in The Times of London, The Guardian, the London Evening Standard, the Sydney Morning Herald and WA Today.
Broadcast appearances include Sky News, ITV News, BBC London, Russia Today, Public Radio International’s The World, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s As It Happens and the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight.
Recent conference addresses:
Sydney Local Government Forum (2025, City of Sydney, Australia)
Active City (2024, Leicester, United Kingdom)
Velo-City Global Conference (2024, Ghent, Belgium)
All Party Parliamentary Friends of Cycling (2021, Canberra, Australia)
Transportation Group National Conference (2019, Wellington, New Zealand)
Universal Design National Conference (2018, Auckland, New Zealand)
XV Iberian Cycling and Cities Conference (2018, Valencia, Spain)
Velo-City Global Conference (2017, Utrecht, Netherlands)
Bike & the City Summit (2017, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Netherlands)
Mark is from the UK and is based in Sydney, Australia.