Rohit T. “Rit” Aggarwala is part of Sidewalk Labs, an urban innovation venture founded by Dan Doctoroff in collaboration with Google. He is also co-chair of the Regional Plan Association’s Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan area, and an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University.
From 2010 to 2015, Rit played several key roles at Bloomberg Philanthropies: these included leading the turnaround of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a global network of cities working on climate change; creating an environmental grantmaking program, which grew to $145 million in grants under his leadership, focused on cities, clean energy, and fisheries; and creating the sustainability and real estate practice of Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consulting firm serving city governments. At Bloomberg Associates, his clients included Los Angeles, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, and Athens.
Aggarwala served as Director of New York City’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability from 2006-2010, and led the creation and implementation of “PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York.” PlaNYC has been hailed as one of the world’s best urban sustainability plans, leading New York City to a 19% reduction in its carbon footprint since 2005. Prior to joining City Hall, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
Aggarwala holds a BA, MBA, and PhD from Columbia University, and an MA from Queen’s University in Ontario. He was born in New York City, where he now lives with wife and daughter.