Every year in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos, world leaders and titans of industry gather under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. From monetary policy to geopolitics, cybersecurity to virtual reality, the January confab is a marquee meeting for the future of the world economy. Since 2009, a small group of business executives have met in the rarified Alpine air to ponder how urbanization fits into a vision for global prosperity.

Nearly a decade later, much of the World Economic Forum's policy research on the urban question is thanks to Alice Charles, the WEF's urban point person at the Shaping the Future of Urban Development and Services Initiative. Officially, she's the forum's Community Lead of Infrastructure and Urban Development Industry.

Internally, she manages attention-grabbing reports on topics such as the latest urban innovations and how the private sector can deliver on the New Urban Agenda, as well as country-specific recommendations for India and city-specific recommendations for China.