Sonal Shah is the Executive Director of the Centre of Sustainable and Equitable Cities and the founder of The Urban Catalysts, advising multiple stakeholders: governments, development banks, philanthropic organisations and think tanks on sustainable, equitable city planning and transport. 

Over the last 15 years, Sonal has worked across 10 states in India, as well as Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the United States focusing on non-motorized transport, integrated public transport, land-use and transport integration and gender equity. Sonal was responsible for introducing India’s first gender-sensitive urban planning guidelines and actively contributed towards revising India’s national urban street design guidelines (IRC codes) to make them people-oriented. 

Sonal has led projects supported by the World Bank, AfD, UK Aid, ADB, IKI, Oak Foundation, Gates Foundation, GIZ and Bloomberg Philanthropies. She has taught at numerous institutions such as the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Anant National University, KRVIA, Academy of Architecture and the JJ School of Architecture. 

Sonal graduated from the MSc Urban Planning program at Columbia University. She was featured in the Alumni Spotlight in Fall 2013-14, and in the Remarkable Women in Transport 2020 by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative. She was also part of the NITI Aayog’s WEP-UNDP program on Innovative Finance.