About the Academy

What inspired the Global Mayors Academy

Swiss-made. Harvard-inspired. Internationally accredited. Powered by the integral approach of Living Cities Earth — designed to empower your leadership and the lasting success of your city.

Origins

Founded by graduates of Harvard and leaders from the world's best cities.

The GMA is founded by accomplished graduates of the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and leaders from globally renowned institutions and some of the world's best cities.

It began with a single guiding question.

The Question

Lev Gordon

"How could city leaders worldwide receive Harvard-level education — or better? This question became our guiding light as we designed the world's best program for city leaders, combining the Harvard approach to leadership education with practical tools and insights from the world's best cities, mayors and city leaders from Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia."

Lev Gordon

Harvard Business School, Global Business Leadership Program '08 · Columbia Executive MBA '04 · co-founder of Living Cities Earth & Global Mayors Academy · member of Harvard Club

A Bold Vision

From a guiding question to a standout program.

It began with a bold vision — led by Lev Gordon and a global team of changemakers — who came together to reimagine leadership education for mayors and city leaders worldwide. Drawing on decades of experience in governance, community-building, and integral development, they set out to create a program that goes beyond theory — rooted in real cities, real results, and real leadership growth.

The result is the Global Mayors Academy (GMA) — a standout among hundreds of executive education programs. Designed to empower your journey as a city leader and changemaker, GMA brings together some of the world's leading experts in leadership, community, and city development.

What's next

Today: the City Leaders Program. In 2026: the world's first integral master's degrees in city transformation.

Today, you can join the GMA Foundational City Leadership Program. Looking ahead, the Academy is expanding its academic offerings. In 2026, GMA will launch the world's first integral-theory-informed, 15-month master's degrees in city transformation — designed to deepen both theoretical grounding and practical capability for regenerative city-making at scale. These build directly on the City Leaders Program as foundational preparation:

2026 launch

Master of City Administration

MCA — With Integral Leadership

Equips senior administrators and elected officials with frameworks for leading cities through complexity — combining classical public administration with integral leadership practice.

2026 launch

Master of City Systems Development

MCSD — With Integral Weavership

Trains city systems designers and ecosystem builders to weave coalitions across sectors and scales — turning fragmented initiatives into coherent regenerative city transformation.

These degrees are designed to equip city leaders with the frameworks, wisdom, and professional recognition needed to meet the demands of 21st-century governance — where systemic, integral leadership is not optional, but essential.

Complementary Pathways

Postgraduate degrees for the inner capacities and cross-sector leadership behind systemic change.

To support this deeper transformation, GMA also offers complementary postgraduate pathways that focus on the inner capacities and cross-sectoral leadership needed to navigate and catalyse complexity.

Coaching pathway

Master of Integral Leadership Coaching

MILC

Trains coaches to support the inner capacities of leaders — especially the emotional, mental, and relational skills that shape how they think, connect, and make decisions. As leaders face growing complexity, rather than offering answers, these coaches help leaders ask the deeper questions that invite reflection and build self-awareness — creating space for meaningful inner engagement and lasting transformation.

Cross-sector pathway

Master of Integral Leadership

MIL — From Any Discipline

For professionals from finance, education, public health, government, and beyond who want to lead change from within their own fields. Creating regenerative cities takes a wide network of people who are growing personally and supported by others around them. Whether or not these leaders work directly in cities, they play a vital role in shaping systems that support long-term, positive change and civic evolution.

Together, these degrees form part of a holistic approach to evolutionary education pathways — meeting leaders where they are and preparing them to lead the future with wisdom, courage, and deep systemic insight.

Our Mission

To inspire, interconnect, and empower 1 million leaders in 10,000 cities worldwide to create a better future for themselves and the cities they serve.

Meet our team

The co-founders behind the Academy.

GMA is powered by a world-class faculty from Living Cities Earth — the world's largest network of experts in integral development, headquartered in Switzerland.

Dr. Paddy Pampallis

Dr. Paddy Pampallis

Cape Town, South Africa

GMA Co-founder & Platform Architect · CLP Core Module Designer & Live Session Facilitator

"Co-designing the GMA platform and the CLP curriculum — shaping developmental pathways that grow capacity, coherence, and civic presence."

Lev Gordon

Lev Gordon

Seattle, USA

GMA Co-founder & Program Architect · CLP Core & Elective Module Designer

"Co-designing the CLP leadership curriculum to help city leaders deepen presence, navigate complexity, and unlock systemic impact."

Ferial Puren

Ferial Puren

Edinburgh, Scotland

GMA Co-founder & Platform Architect · CLP Core Module & City Development Project Designer · Live Session Facilitator

"Designing learning environments that centre regeneration, inclusion, and whole-person development as foundations for city transformation."

Dr. Robert Fischer

Dr. Robert Fischer

Bern, Switzerland

GMA Co-founder · President, Living Cities Earth Association

"Connecting city leaders to the resources inside and outside themselves — building the courage, trust, stability, and flexibility to lead cities through complexity."

Operations Leadership

Darrell Gooden

Darrell Gooden

Southern California

Chief Operating Officer

Darrell leads operations and distribution as COO, working closely with the go-to-market team to convert strategy into delivery. His role is to keep the system running while removing the practical barriers that get in the way of growth — and to act as a buffer between long-term thinking and short-term execution.

Living Cities Earth

The team behind the GMA.

Living Cities Earth (LCE) is the world's largest integral city development community — with more than 130 co-founders: leading experts and change-makers from 30 countries and 5 continents. The LCE Association is a Swiss-registered nonprofit organisation creating positive impact in 100+ countries.

With more than 1,000 research publications and 2,000+ years of combined experience in leadership, organisational and city development, LCE experts have provided inspiration, advice and practical tools to thousands of city leaders and change-makers in 700+ cities across more than 100 countries.

Many LCE co-founders themselves were leading remarkable city development projects and full-scale city transformations that are now part of GMA curriculum and materials.

130+

Co-founders across 30 countries and 5 continents

1,000+

Research publications across leadership and city development

2,000+

Years of combined practitioner experience

700+

Cities supported across 100+ countries

Vision 10,000 living cities, 1 living planet.

Mission To inspire, interconnect and empower 1 million leaders of positive change in 10,000 cities — to create a future where people live happy healthy lives in harmony with nature.

Join the Founding Cohort.

The City Leaders Program begins on 25 July 2026. Speak with a program advisor to find out if it's the right fit for you and your city.

Apply to the Founding Cohort or write to us at contact@globalmayors.academy