Mayor Pete Saenz will attend the inaugural class of the City Leadership Program of 40 U.S. Mayors, an executive education program offered by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
According to the award letter sent by David Margalit, executive director of the initiative, “The year–long engagement launches with an immersive in-person Executive Education program. The program will equip you with approaches and a network to help you solve your most pressing challenges, deliver exceptional results for your residents, and lead a culture of high performance and innovation in your city.”
Saenz will travel to New York City for the immersive portion of the program on July 16 and will participate in classroom sessions, group work, and learning experiences until Wednesday, July 19. His participation, which includes tuition, accommodations, meals and airfare, is funded by a gift from the Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of its Government Innovation portfolio.
The Mayor confirmed his commitment to the program that will continue over the next year, and will include:
- Participating fully and actively throughout the Executive Education program in NYC;
- Deepen his engagement and learning through a series of six virtual (80-minute long) learning sessions over the upcoming year;
- Nominating two leaders from his administration to participate in a coordinated City Leadership Program for Senior Staff — a program that will launch with a four-day in-person session in New York City from August 20 to August 24, 2017;
- Seek to take advantage of additional support offered to cities through the initiative; and
- Share lessons learned in Laredo in order to support the program and mayors worldwide.
Saenz said he was honored to represent Laredo at the initiative. He attributed the invitation to the City’s recent and successful participation in the What Works City program.
“We have pledged our commitment to continue this data portal project for better policy decision making, and by so doing, it has opened up crucial network opportunities, like this upcoming Leadership Initiative event,” he said.
An excerpt from https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/bloomberg-harvard-city-leadership-initiative/
“Today’s local government leaders are grappling with growing and complex challenges while trying to provide real results for citizens. While national governments around the world struggle, mayors must find new ways to use limited resources and deliver a wide range of services for growing populations. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative equips mayors and their senior leaders with cutting-edge tools and techniques to more effectively tackle pressing management challenges faced in their cities.
Through a $32 million initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University are collaborating to provide hundreds of city leaders customized executive education focused on leadership and innovation in governance. The City Leadership Initiative blends the public sector innovation expertise of the Harvard Kennedy School and the management expertise of the Harvard Business School with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global network and experience in more than 200 cities.
The world-class leadership program will also include:
- Virtual-classes conducted through Harvard’s HBx Live System to reinforce lessons and deepen learning.
- An on-demand system for mayors and staff to call for support with policy research, identifying best practices, and requests for introductions to other city leaders.
- Student internships in the offices of participating mayors, where students are matched according to specific skills sought by the Mayor.
- Executive coaching through which successful mayors coach newcomers.
To advance leadership, management, and innovation in cities around the world, the City Leadership Initiative will make its curriculum available at no cost to individuals and institutions developing similar training programs. Case studies and other research outputs supported by the Initiative will also be accessible online.
