GCDN Annual Convening – Los Angeles 2025

Ramon Marrades is an economist and urbanist with a passion for port cities, public spaces, culture, and innovation. He is currently Director at Placemaking Europe, the network that connects practitioners, academics, community leaders, market players, and policymakers across the field of placemaking; and a strategy advisor to a number of cities and large-scale development projects. Before, he served as the Chief Strategy and Finance Officer at La Marina de València, Valencia’s waterfront redevelopment agency, and a board member of the Worldwide Network of Port Cities (AIVP). He led the team that designed "Culture for Recovery" (2021), the post-covid action plan for the cultural and creative sectors in Valencian Region (Spain).

He holds an Executive MSc in Cities from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Economics and Geography from Utrecht University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Valencia. He has been a researcher at the University of Valencia (Spain), Western Sydney University (Australia), and FLACSO (Ecuador). He received the Spanish Social Entrepreneur Award in 2012. Ramon is co-editor of the book “Our City? Countering Exclusion in Public Space” (2019) and curator of Placemaking Week Europe 2019, 2022 and 2023.