William Peduto is not your typical mayor. But then, the rebirth of an important city like Pittsburgh required someone who wouldn’t be typical in any way at all.

Peduto, who as mayor champions the protection and enhancement of Pittsburgh’s new reputation — maintaining fiscal responsibility, establishing community based development plans, embracing innovative solutions and becoming a leader in green initiatives — will speak at West Virginia University on November 11. He will appear in the WVU College of Business and Economics Distinguished Speaker Series at 3 p.m. at Erickson Alumni Center.

With a commitment to modernizing city government and implementing leading practices to provide taxpayers with an efficient, effective, transparent, and a more accountable government, Peduto’s initiatives have brought new life to Pittsburgh, which was recently selected to join the Rockefeller Foundation network’s 100 Resilient Cities. The foundation provides resources to improve city resilience in the face of climate change, globalization and urbanization trends. Peduto also signed a unique agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to make the city a world leader in district energy production.

From strengthening the city’s ethics code to being co-creator of iBurgh, the nation’s first mobile app for local government, he is a firm believer that human capital will help propel Pittsburgh to new heights. Under Peduto’s leadership, the City of Pittsburgh has experienced a complete transformation of the city’s procurement process; the reorganization of the Department of Permits, Licenses & Inspections; a commitment to developing a long-term maintenance and investment plan for the City’s assets; and technological upgrades including a GPS-based Snow Plow Tracker website, 311 Resource Center mobile app and an interactive street paving website.

He has had extensive experience in helping transform Pittsburgh’s economy into a Med/Ed New Economy. By establishing “community-based” development plans and encouraging the investment into niche industries, he continues to gather momentum in building a New Pittsburgh.

“Our goal is to make Pittsburgh a leading 21st Century city, and that will require the knowledge, skills and experiences of college students who are looking to work in a vibrant city,” Peduto said. “One of the messages I will have for students at WVU is that Pittsburgh is a city of opportunity, and that our transformation into a New Pittsburgh will require jobs and people in the flourishing new economy we’re building.”

He is also a founding member of the MetroLab Network, a national alliance of cities and universities, and serves on the National League of Cities Board of Directors.

Peduto was first elected to Pittsburgh City Council in 2001, and served from 2002-14. He ran for mayor in 2013 and won after capturing 84 percent of the vote, and has served in that capacity from 2014 to the present. He is also known as the only politician who laces up his skates as a member of Pittsburgh’s Celebrity Hockey Team.

The B&E Distinguished Speaker Series is free and open to the public, and is sponsored in part by Wells Fargo. For further information on the WVU College of Business and Economics, follow B&E on Twitter at @wvucobe or visit be.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

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CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, WVU College of Business and Economics
304.293.5131, patrick.gregg@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.