Sebastien Goethals is an urban planner, designer and architect from Brussels that has worked globally over the past 12 years with a contextualized approach of strategic planning, urban design, mobility issues, infrastructure and governance.

Since 2009, he has lived in two Chinese mega-cities (Shanghai and Chengdu) and experienced the unprecedented urbanization of China in his daily life and as a planning professional, with interventions on new town developments, urban heritage and rural areas.

His experience of urban Asia with a European background brought him to African cities (Kinshasa, Nairobi, Conakry, Bamako) with a different perspective on urban resilience, affordable housing issues and community self-sufficiency. His work at Citilinks includes the connection, cooperation and information sharing between Asian and African planners and decision makers.

Sebastien holds an MSc in Architecture and an MSc in Urban and Territorial Planning. He has conducted key research in urban mobility innovation in Belgium (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and China (University of Tongji) and advises municipalities and transport industries with a focus on multimodal solutions, shared used mobility, digitization and urban governance.

He works on data-informed planning solutions for public engagement with the Metropolitan Collective in North America and Europe.

Sebastien currently (2017-2018) leads the mobility master plan of Conakry (Guinea) and assists the municipality to create an urban transport authority.