Carl Peterson

Carl Peterson is the Senior Manager for Special Projects at the Charter Cities Institute, where he leads the Africa’s NXT50 Cities Coalition and partnerships, and helps new-city projects secure investment and tenants. An attorney, he has published academic articles on special jurisdictions and private military corporations, and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

He came to the institute as a legal researcher, co-authoring a study of the Honduran ZEDE law for the Journal of Special Jurisdictions and contributing chapters to the institute’s governance handbook, the reference manual for people who have to write the rules of a new city rather than argue for one.

The NXT50 Cities Coalition, which he leads, rests on a demographic fact rather than an ideology. Africa will add hundreds of millions of urban residents over the coming decades, and most of the cities that will house them are small today and unplanned. The coalition convenes governments, developers and non-governmental organisations around that, and he has recruited the bulk of its membership personally, converting dozens of organisations out of hundreds approached.

He served in the Peace Corps before this work, and holds a law degree from the University of Washington.