Topic 4
Topic 4: Policy and Governance for Urban Diversity
1400 - 1600 (Plenary Hall)
Paper 1 - Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Mayor, KL City Hall (Malaysia),
Paper 2 - Gaetan Siew, Principal of Visio Architecture (Mauritius),
Paper 3 - Elizabeth Cardosa, Director, H&C Heritage Services SB (Malaysia).
Panelists Discussion: Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Gaetan Siew, Elizabeth Cardosa & Regina Gonthier
Maimunah Mohd Sharif
Kuala Lumpur City Hall
Maimunah Mohd Sharif is a Malaysian civil servant and urban planner who has been serving as the 15th Mayor of Kuala Lumpur since August 2024. She also served as the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) since January 2018 until January 2024, becoming the first Asian woman to serve as Executive Director of UN-Habitat. From January 2019 to January 2020, she also concurrently served as the acting Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON). She holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in the UN System and sits on the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the Secretary-General's Senior Management Group.
Prior to her appointment as Executive Director of UN-Habitat, she was the Mayor of Penang Island, Malaysia. Before her appointment as Mayor, she was the President of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai from 2011, the first woman to be appointed to the position.
Gaetan Siew
Visio Architecture
Siew graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille (ENSAM), France in 1979 and has been practicing in Port Louis, Mauritius since 1981. His work includes master plans for the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius, the Chinese neighbourhood in Port Louis and the Seychelles International Airport. He has also worked in Congo, France, India, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mayotte, Seychelles, Swaziland, Benin, Tunisia, and many others on projects such as airports, hotels, commercial and leisure, urban planning and heritage projects. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and has been a juror for various architecture awards.
He was elected President of the Association of Mauritian Architects in 1985, and has played an active part in the island’s urban development and environment and heritage protection programmes. He is a member of the Economic and Social Council of Mauritius. He was elected President of the International Union of Architects in 2005.
Elizabeth Cardosa
H&C Heritage Services SB
Elizabeth Cardosa is a highly regarded figure in the field of cultural and heritage preservation. She is the co-founder of H & C Heritage Services Sdn Bhd and a Registered Conservator with National Heritage Department, Malaysia. She has an extensive track record of advocating for the preservation of cultural heritage over two decades. She is a member of the Executive Board of ICOMOS Malaysia and is also an expert member of the ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Committee. She sits in the Council of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a learned society dedicated to the collection, recording and dissemination of historical and cultural information about Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Her expertise extends to designing materials for the interpretation of heritage sites, enhancing the understanding of their historical and cultural significance.
Her technical involvement in building restoration includes Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, winner of the 2010 Award of Excellence for the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, and most recently the 2019 PAM Gold Medal award for the conservation of Masjid Di Raja Sultan Sulaiman in Klang, Selangor.