About Irene García Brenes

As an urbanist, Irene has envisioned an enjoyable city, with thriving public spaces where biodiversity reclaims its role within the urban landscape and where people may rethink how they commute. She is a Biotech Engineer with an MBA in Marketing from ITCR, the leading tech university in Costa Rica, and has a Sustainability Management degree from INCAE Business School. She worked as the Director of the Mayor’s Office, and currently works as the Mayors´ advisor and leads its innovation team. Irene has represented the Municipality of Curridabat as Chief Innovation Officer at City Lab 2018 and 2019 and the Sweet City Vision has been recognized with the Innovative Practices for the New Urban 2016 Award by UN-HABITAT, MercoCiudades, FLACMA, The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation 2016 (Certificate of Recognition), Le Monde Smart Cities Global Innovation Awards, International LafargeHolcim Awards 2017, Acknowledgement Prize for “Socio-Spatial Governmentality in Costa Rica”. Congress for the New Urbanism, 2018 Charter Award for “Sweet City: defeating the city-nature antagonism, Curridabat, Costa Rica. A plan to recover urban nature for a healthier city.”