Enrique Penalosa is an internationally respected urban thinker, who, as Mayor of Bogota in two non-consecutive terms, profoundly transformed it. As advisor and lecturer, he has influenced policies in many cities throughout the world.
Penalosa is the author of Equality and the City (University of Pennsylvania, 2024).
His achievements as mayor include the creation of TransMilenio,a the world´s best bus-based mass transit (BRT) which today moves more than 2,5 million passengers daily and has served as a model to hundreds of cities; contracted Bogota´s first Metro line; did an extensive bicycle network years before Paris, or New York which led to Bogota being today the city in America with the largest bicycle ridership; more than 100 km of greenways; legalized and improved hundreds of informal neighborhoods; did three housing projects with a high quality urban design, most of which social housing, for more than half a million citizens; hundreds of parks; five formidable sports and cultural centers; three large libraries; 67 beautiful schools, 35 of which managed through a successful private-public system; and a radical redevelopment of 33 hectares in the center of Bogota, previously controlled by criminals.
Penalosa has lectured in hundreds of cities and in many of the world´s most important universities and advised governments all over the world.
He is a member of the Advisory Board of AMALI (African Mayoral Leadership Initiative) which supports African mayors and governors to strengthen their leadership skills; member of the Advisory Council of Parks & Trails New York; Fellow of the Institute for Urban Research of the University of Pennsylvania. For over a decade he was President of the Board of New York´s Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP); he was also a member of the London School of Economics´ Cities Program Advisory Board. He was member of the Commission for the Reinvention of Transport of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority created by the New York Governor Cuomo.
In 2025 Penalosa was awarded the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize by the Institute of Urban Research of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been included several times in Planetizen´s list of The Most Influential Urbanists, Past and Present. He was also one of ¨15 Thought Leaders in Sustainable City Development¨ selected by Identity Review July 2023. Among other international recognitions he has received are the Stockholm Challenge; the Gothenburg Sustainability Prize; the 2018 Edmund N. Bacon Award, the highest tribute of The Center for Design and Architecture of Philadelphia, given to him because of ¨the world-wide influence his pioneering initiatives have had on public transportation, infrastructure investment, and public space, including in cities such as Philadelphia and New York City¨. For Penalosa´s work Bogota was awarded the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale.
Penalosa has a BA in Economics and History from Duke University, a Degree in Government from the IIAP (fused with ENA) in France and a DESS in Public Administration from the University of Paris 2 Pantheon-Assas. He was Dean of Management at Externado University in Bogota and a Visiting Scholar at New York University.
