Warren Whitlock

Biography: Warren S. Whitlock Director, Construction Coordination Columbia University New York, NY Whitlock is the Director of Construction Coordination for Columbia University in New York City and has 25 years of varied experience in disaster relief and recovery, construction coordination, strategic planning, real estate development, finance and government. One of the top economic development professionals in New York City, Whitlock is a senior executive member of Columbia University's Facilities department as well as a senior planning team member of the University's 18 acre acquisition and expansion initiative into the Manhattanville section of West Harlem. This 30 year project involves, among other things, the construction of an expandable bathtub to ensure non-aqueous penetration of the project site to depths of 180 feet of soil/sand conditions. Whitlock is the University's primary liaison for all construction activity, which, since 2000, has delivered over $1 billion in capital construction projects. He also oversees Columbia's MBE, WBE and LBE participation initiative, which, through first quarter of 2005, exceeded 39% participation in its large-scale construction projects. Prior to joining Columbia University in 2002, Whitlock managed New York State's economic development efforts in Harlem as the director of the Harlem Community Development Corporation. In this capacity, he initiated a series of successful commercial and residential development initiatives that not only led to the current successful revitalization of Harlem, but achieved this while preserving the historic and cultural authenticity of this much revered African-American neighborhood in the process. As the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Community Development Agency (currently, the New York City Department of Youth & Community Development), Whitlock leveraged his knowledge of city and state government to create several successful first-time initiatives for the City of New York utilizing Federal Community Service Block Grants (CSBG). Between 1989 and 1992, Whitlock served as a senior project manager at the New York City Economic Development Corporation where he worked to finance small to medium-sized industrial-based businesses throughout New York City. In the field of international economic development, Whitlock served as a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Somalia, East Africa, where he lived and worked for four years. Whitlock is an adjunct professor of Urban Planning at Brooklyn College's Graduate Center for Worker Education and is a Trustee and director of the Morris Jumel Mansion in Manhattan, the Double Discovery Center at Columbia University and the Supportive Children's Advocacy Network of New York. Whitlock is an executive member of ULI's New York District Council, where he has been a member since 1997, and he has served a member of the ULI Advisory Services Panel at the University of New Orleans in 2003. May 2008