Bob Bennett | Chair
Cities Today

Bob Bennett chairs Cities Today Institute, a 200+ community, multinational think-and-do tank, which supports city leadership through conferences, peer mentorship, research, and training. The Institute prepares city leaders to create livable, sustainable, connected, and resilient cities. He is also the Principal and Founder of B Squared Civic Solutions, a civic tech consulting firm with commercial and public sector clients, including service with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas as their Covid-19 Vaccine Operations Director in 2021. In addition to his consultancy work, Mr. Bennett serves as Ward 2 Alderman in his hometown of Parkville, MO. He previously served as Chief Innovation Officer for Kansas City, Missouri from 2016-2019. In that role, he led the City’s Smart City Challenge initiatives, which earned Kansas City an Edison Award (Gold) for “Collective Disruption” and civic innovation in 2017. Bob was named one of GovTech’s 25 Dreamers, Doers, and Drivers in 2018. Before working in city government, Mr. Bennett served 25years in the US Army as an operations executive and strategic planner. He is a combat veteran who successfully built teams of American soldiers in the US, Europe, Southwest Asia, Africa and throughout the Pacific Ocean region. He recently published a book detailing how to lead city innovation projects, Changing the World, One City at a Time.